Jean-François Richet's "Blood Father" with Mel Gibson is an unrelenting, razor-edged road thriller about an aging ex-con on parole and his doomed, 17-year old daughter. Peter Craig adapted his own novel with "Straight Out of Compton" scenarist Andrea Berloff. Richet has wrought a grim, fast-paced, 88-minute lost and found melodrama about redemption under the worst circumstances. Nobody has a good day in this tragic actioneer with thoroughly reprehensible adversaries. Richet delivers a movie with lots of gusto and Mel Gibson in full-blown mode. John Link (Mel Gibson of "Mad Max") has served a seven year stretch in prison for not informing on his former accomplice, Preacher (Michael Parks of "Tusk"), and Link is now out of stir, living in a battered, ramshackle trailer on the fringe of the desert inking tattoos on low-lifers and spending time with his durable sponsor, Kirby (William H. Macey), who lives not far from him in a nearby trailer. John has posters tacked up on his trailer walls about his missing daughter, Lydia (Erin Moriarty of "Captain Fantastic"), who has fled from her mother. Lydia has gotten herself mixed up with the relative of a ruthless Cartel king, Jonah (Diego Luna of "Elysium"), who allows nice looking people to live in the homes where he has stashed money in the walls. As the film unfolds, Jonah wants to test Lydia's devotion to him when they venture out to one such stash house to terminate a thief living it in with her family. Jonah insists that Lydia shoot the wife, but she cannot bring herself to murder a defenseless woman in cold blood. The next worst thing happens for our heroine. She plugs her boyfriend Jonah in the neck and takes it on the lam. Imagine Link's surprise when he picks up the phone and listens to Lydia on the other end of the line. She begs for $200 so she can hide from Jonah's trigger-happy goons. John jumps in his cranky old Nova and goes to get her. He brings her back to his trailer and tries to straighten her out, but Lydia is reluctant to tell him about her predicament. Lots of cool violence ensues as Mel goes into gunfighter mode to protect his daughter while members of the Cartel pursue them with a vengeance. Like most cartel gunmen, they have no qualms about killing cops when they get in their way. Mind you, "Blood Father" is as tough and rugged as Mel Gibson's craggy face can make it, and Richet stages some interesting shoot-outs. Don't go looking for a happy ending to this epic. The concluding gunfight is pretty gritty and the explosion looks definitely cool when Link booby-traps his motorcycle. The cast looks just right for the material. Although it isn't as good as "Get the Gringo," "Blood Father" breaks new ground for Gibson and reminds us that despite his public transgressions that he is still a gifted actor.
Review of Blood Father
