A Touch of Vengeance

Directed by Jordan-Kane Lewis

2022

Arriving from Studio Silent comes feature film A Touch of Vengeance, written and directed by young, up and coming filmmaker Jordan-Kane Lewis.

Captured in stunning black and white, Vengeance tells the story of a professional hitman whose life quickly becomes complicated when an assignment to cover up a murder goes wrong.

Lucas (Paul Jonah) is an experienced and well recommended assassin who is tasked with cleaning up the horrific, drug-fuelled rape and murder of two women. The murderer? Marcus (a committed and strong Martin Nadin) the psychotic, wayward son of a respected local gangland boss.

A short while after carefully cleaning the crime scene and removing the two bodies from the property, Lucas is startled to hear muffled screams from inside his car boot where the victims are.

One of the women, Maria (Leona Clarke) has miraculously survived but is traumatized by the experience. This is where the narrative gets even more interesting,. Suddenly, Lucas is now facing a dilemma. He’s not been paid to kill her, however from an earlier scene he doesn’t seem to care about assassinating innocents caught in the crossfire, but something has now stumped him.

They soon develop an understanding that she will stay in his flat whilst he figures out an escape plan. A tender, respectful bond is slowly formed, helped by being brought to life on the screen by the chemistry created from the performances by Paul Jonah and Leona Clarke.

Jordan-Kane Lewis, the film's writer, director, editor and cinematographer has opted to tell this story with a non-linear narrative. At first it's a tad confusing as the film has been crafted to look linear. But once the viewer is aware of its construction, it makes for a much more enjoyable experience.

The film is shot on location throughout Dronfield, Sheffield and Chesterfield, with the secondary footage of city lights and towering buildings at night being well done and helps the audience envision this world that’s been built as very authentic. There is some genuinely creative cinematography littered throughout the film, which was my favourite element of A Touch of Vengeance.

Unfortunately, I feel the sound design holds the film back from its true potential. Some dialogue is hard to understand and there are moments when there are several characters speaking at once in a scene and the audio becomes scrambled.

However, this doesn’t detract from the talent that is behind the lens across the board, especially when you take into the account the film was shot for Lewis’s final student degree work.

Viewers will be reminded of earlier films with a similar narrative like Leon: The Professional (1994) but instead of simply making a carbon copy of that film, the writers (Jordan-Kane Lewis & Lucy Ingram) have striven to produce something wholly original.

With a runtime of just over an hour, there isn’t an ounce of fat on the final cut which keeps you entertained throughout

★★★★

4/5

Guy Russell

Twitter @budguyer