Ryan McNeilMany years ago, gunmen descended on a farm house that was home to a doctor who fought on the wrong side of a war. The gunmen sought vengeance for the doctors supposed misdeeds, and they got it.
Unbeknownst to part of the group, the doctor’s daughter, Nina, was left alive at the farm house, bearing witness to their bloodthirst.
Many years later, Nina (Selma Hayek Pinault) finds the last surviving member of the gunmen (Demián Bichir), and holds him to account for his actions…
…with a loaded gun in her purse
WITHOUT BLOOD feels like it’s no longer a sketch, but not yet set to canvas.
This isn’t a bad thing, and without having read the book, it’s hard to say how much of this feeling comes from the source, and how much comes from adaptation. It’s worth noting though, since the experience isn’t what one would expect from “a tale of revenge”.
Moreover, WITHOUT BLOOD feels less like a tale, and more like a tale-of-a-tale. Again, this is not a bad thing.
Throughout storytelling history, there are countless examples of an avenger catching-up to the sinner they wish to judge. The result is typically the same: The sinner is asked for any last words and then a trigger is pulled.
Here though, the time is taken not only to go back to what happened…but to walk through both what is known and what is supposed from then until now.
This is what makes the film something special – if perhaps something off-kilter. This game of show-and-tell allows two people to dig up the dirt of the past, and look each other in the eye as they sift memory from lived experience. They frame and reframe the personal impact of these details, unfolding a tenuous understanding that is less about “how” and more about “why”.
Through it all, the loaded gun remains in Nina’s purse.
WITHOUT BLOOD is less concerned with providing answers than it is with asking questions. Whether or not that works for an audience member is up to them.
What’s undeniable is the way the film underscores the value of both story and truth; with the former being what is understood and the latter being what is known.
Or, in Nina’s words:
“Why should my truth be any less true than your story?”
It’s a good question, and one that may not need to be answered with words.
It is answered instead with long pauses, body language, looks of shame, looks of contrition, and with an overall sense of dread. These answers may just beg more questions, but it’s the best answers WITHOUT BLOOD can provide.
…and yet, even with this answer, the loaded gun remains in Nina’s purse.