REVIEW: RETALIATION (English)

Producers- Sheetal Vinod Talwar, Mark Lane, James Harris and Jasper Graham

Director- Ludwig Shammasian & Paul Shammasian

Star Cast- Orlando Bloom, Janet Montgomery and Anne Reid

Genre- Vendetta Drama

Rating- **1/2

Jyothi Venkatesh

An extremely angry demolition worker called Malky (Orlando Bloom) seeks revenge against the man he holds responsible for a traumatic childhood incident.

He has been assigned to tear down the church where he was molested by a priest as a young boy.

Fuelled by anger, a demolition worker seeks revenge against the man he holds responsible for a traumatic childhood incident.

Retaliation was earlier released under the title ‘Romans’ in 2017 in Russia. Orlando Bloom plays Malky, a demolition worker whose latest assignment is to tear down the church where he was molested by a priest as a young boy.

Unfortunately, that past rears its ugly head when Malky meets the now elderly priest at a local pub.

This encounter sends the already fragile Malky into an emotional tailspin and has to decide whether to seek revenge against this priest or find another path.

Overcome with a desire for revenge, Malky is forced to face his past and is left with a decision as to what to do next.

Malky is a complex and tricky character, but never will you see Bloom fumbling. He blends into the role so well that it will be impossible to tell apart Bloom from an actor and a character Geoff Thompson’s script is inspired by his own real-life experiences in Retaliation.

Besides Orlando Bloom, all the supporting cast including. Janet Montgomery, Charlie Creed-Miles, Anne Reid and Josh Myers form the strong cast of 'Retaliation'.

The film sets out to tackle a very serious plot but as far as its execution is concerned, the director duo leaves a lot to be desired because the pace of the film is far too languid for comfort.

The directors are also handicapped by a wafer plot as the film otherwise does not at all have any scope for any detailed drama involving the protagonist.

To sum up, any film which is all about historical sexual abuse within the church is never going to be an easy watch, and this film is also no exception to the rule as such but I’d advise you to give it a dekho at least once, especially if you are an adult and you like to watch films which are rich in content