Redux Redux
She strikes the spark and the fire catches, the petrol-drenched man tied to the chair ablaze, lighting up the night; she’s been on the floor in a stranglehold and risen again, a woman who is not one for mercy or hesitation, not now, not at this point when she has gone so far, but tomorrow is another day, a mug of coffee as the diner patrons sit around oblivious to her intentions, on a deadline to track the man who murdered her daughter and kill him again.
Her name is Irene Kelly, and her daughter was fourteen years old when she was kidnapped and murdered by Neville, his twelfth victim, a man she has hunted across dimensions, hoping to find Anna alive but when she doesn’t jumping forward for another round of revenge, at least saving those who would have been his next victims but never able to find closure for herself.
A family affair written and directed by brothers Kevin McManus and Matthew McManus and starring their sister, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit’s Michaela McManus, Redux Redux is a twisting science fiction revenge thriller, Hell having no fury like the wrath of a grieving mother whose rage transcends the laws of the universe but who has no idea what she will do if she finds what she is seeking.
Existing in an echoing multiverse of grief, pain, anger and loneliness, even if another Anna is still alive, she is someone else’s daughter, not hers; if she kidnaps her, is she not the same as the man she hunts time and again? Irene’s only solace Jonathan (The Last Stop in Yuma County’s Jim Cummings), handsome widower at the bereavement support group, knowing the story of his life even as she is a stranger to him, he is a quick fix, a Band-Aid on a gaping wound, available and easy to apply.
A desperate act of connection, a hand to cling to when all else is in flux, running on empty with an imperfect plan with no end in sight which hits a wall when breaking into his home for the umpteenth time she finds not Neville (Brooklyn 45’s Jeremy Holm) but a young woman chained in his bathroom, Irene wants to take runaway Mia Brown (Stella Marcus) back to the shelter but she refuses, demanding payback of her own, complicating an already messy situation.
Its UK premiere part of the Midnight Madness strand at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Redux Redux is gripping, surprising and challenging from opening shot to the final frames, recalling Predestination and Sew Torn in its infinite variations of dwindling possibility, Irene aware there are no right answers and no way to ever win yet unable to turn away, a woman conditioned to survive and face her demons over and over until the end of time.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival continues until Wednesday 20th August
