Film Review: IDA RED: Action-Packed Conclusion Saves Crime Drama From Mediocrity [Fantasia 2021]

Ida Red Review

Ida Red (2021) Film Review from the 25th Annual Fantasia International Film Festival, a movie directed by John Swab, and starring Frank Grillo, Josh Hartnett, Melissa Leo, Deborah Ann Woll, Nicholas Cirillo, William Forsythe, Mark Boone Junior, Sofia Hublitz, Beau Knapp, John Swab, George Carroll, Billy Blair, Bruce Davis, Ben Hall, Tim Mikulecky, Cara Cox and James Whitecloud.

John Swab’s film, Ida Red, helps bring actor Josh Hartnett back to the movies with a vengeance. Hartnett plays the film’s best role and his Wyatt Walker is the most likable character in the film. The fact that he’s playing a criminal doesn’t matter. We root for him throughout, for whatever reason. Wyatt is dealing with his mother Ida (Melissa Leo)’s imprisonment for wrongful doings. To complicate matters, Ida is also dying. The film’s premise revolves around Wyatt and his uncle Dallas (Frank Grillo) trying to get Ida to come home to her family so she can die in peace. That will be much easier said than done as the events of the film unfold.

In the early part of the film, which is set in Tulsa, there is a lot of emphasis on Wyatt’s family. We meet his sister Jeanie (Deborah Ann Woll) and her teenage daughter Darla (Sofia Hublitz). Wyatt is a hard worker and, for the most part, a good guy, it’s just that his mother is a criminal which holds the family unit back from true happiness. Darla plays a key role in the film as we follow her through her interest in a young man in town who she hooks up with all the way up until a major plot detail is revealed that directly concerns her character. Hublitz is a bright up-and-coming actress and turns in one of the film’s best performances.

Uncle Dallas is a ticking time bomb and as played to perfection by Grillo, we get to see all his rage and violence as he doesn’t mind killing anyone who gets in the way of his plans. There is a lot going on in the film’s first half and it’s a little hard to follow it all without a scorecard. There is family drama on top of violence and the first part of the movie is not as successful as the second half when it really picks up a lot of steam. Wyatt and Dallas must fight to get Ida out of jail for her final days and violence saturates the film as everything that could go wrong does go wrong.

One such problem with getting Ida out of jail is a member of the parole board (Ben Hall) who, even after much persuasion, doesn’t seem like he’s going to let Ida go free. William Forsythe plays an FBI agent who teams up with Jeanie’s husband to take down Wyatt and Dallas in their plans to try to set Ida free as well. It’s basically a no-win situation (or is it?) as Wyatt and Dallas are determined to go out in a blaze of glory all in the name of family.

The ending scenes of the picture make the film work successfully. There is an action-packed finale and some real suspense as to whether or not Ida can be set free from jail. Melissa Leo doesn’t get a lot of screen time as Ida but she nails her speech to the parole board towards the end. The big action centerpiece of the film that arrives late in the picture can remind one of the best of Michael Mann’s films such as Heat. It’s absolutely bound to keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

Hartnett make a huge comeback through his work in this picture. His role is the most relatable and we actually sympathize with his predicament. Grillo is a reliable psychopath and the whole cast, for the most part, acquits themselves admirably in their roles with Forsythe one of the major standouts in the picture.

There are some scenes which really don’t work at all such as one scene where Madonna’s “Crazy For You” is played in a scene which has little to do with the song. I had to check my screen to make sure that another movie’s sound wasn’t playing over this one’s! But, in all, if you can make it until the ending, there are plenty of action sequences and a lot of deep family drama that make Ida Red a worthwhile film.

Rating: 7/10

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