Butler's Cinema Scene

David Myers Gregory, Vinnie Jones

“THE BIG UGLY”  My rating: C+

106 minutes |MPAA rating: R

Dramatically, there’s nothing special about “The Big Ugly,”  a crime/revenge yarn that hits the usual plot points without adding much to the genre.

What this melodrama from writer/director Scott Wiper does have going for it is its look.  The cinematographer is Jeremy Osbern, a Kansas Citian who has cut his teeth on shorts, a Kevin Willmott feature (“The Only Good Indian”) and is now breaking into the big time.

His work on “Big Ugly” is exemplary — as close to a classic noir look as color will allow.  At least half the film unfolds at night, in dimly-lit bars and bedrooms, and Osbern’s provocative use of shadow and silhouette is absolutely first rate.

The plot finds English tough guy Neelyn (Vinnie Jones) flying to America with his mob boss Harris (Malcolm McDowell). Neelyn is accompanied by his longtime girl Fiona (Leonra Crichlow), a good soul who loves him despite his drinking and murderous employment.

Malcolm McDowell

One in rural West Virginia, the Brits get cozy with American oilman Preston (Ron Perlman), who needs cash for petroleum exploration and has offered to launder Harris’ dirty money in a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Except that Preston has a handsome Ted Bundy-ish charmer of a son, Junior (Brandon Sklenar), who believes all women should bow down before him.  While Neelyn lies sleeping off a night of honky tonkin’, Junior puts his moves on Fiona.

In the morning she is missing.

A heartbroken Neelyn decides to get even.

Among the supporting characters is Junior’s much-abused lackey Will (Nicholas Braun, the hapless Cousin Greg on HBO’s “Succession”), his waitress girl (Levin Rambin), who like all the women in this part of Appalachia is a willowy blonde, and Preston’s loyal fixer (Bruce McGill).

Ron Perlman

There’s also a small-town drunk (David Myers Gregory) whom Neelyn befriends; turns out the sot has sniper skills that will come in handy.

Wiper’s screenplay leans heavily on honor-among-thieves dialogue. It also puts some very weird words into the mouth of Perlman’s character, who at one point excoriates a couple of good ol’ boys for displaying a Confederate flag (“You want to fly a flag?  Go win something.”) and believes he can drill for oil the “right” way, leaving the land “as God intended it to be.”

Good luck with that.

All of this is delivered with the utmost solemnity.  The film desperately needs a sense of humor. If only “The Big Ugly” lived up to the gonzo promise of its Tarantinoesque title.

At least leading man Jones is watchable in an inevitable-train-wreck way, moving inexorably toward a showdown with the slimy Junior.

| Robert W. Butler

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