DONNYBROOK: A Slow & Punishing Bout Of Misery Porn

“The world’s changed,” a character ominously portends in the opening moments of Donnybrook. “The only thing worth living for is vice and indulgence.” It’s a bleak outlook on life, but one that feels right at home in the world of Donnybrook, a moody and pretentious thriller that strives to live within a similar vein as recent films like Blue Ruin and Cold in July. But whereas those films were excellent pieces of lurid pulp, Donnybrook has trouble finding its footing, coming off as derivative of those superior films.

Director Tim Sutton, whose previous works include Pavilion, Memphis, and Dark Night, is out to make his very own “message movie,” detailing the lives of an impoverished group of people literally fighting to stay alive in their own neck of the woods. His intentions are noble, and he can certainly craft a good-looking film, but his screenplay (which is adapted from a 2012 novel of the same name by Frank Bill) leaves a lot to be desired, often spoiling much of the good will he leaves elsewhere.

Death of the American Dream

Living in despondency in an unidentified trailer park in rural, midwestern America, Jarhead Earl (Jamie Bell) is a former soldier struggling to make ends meet. Husband to meth-addled wife Tammy (Dara Tiller), and father to children Moses (Alexander Washburn) and Scout (Rhyan Elizabeth Hanavan), Earl resorts to a life of petty crime to provide for his family. Having recently held up a weapons and ammunition shop, Earl has secured the admittance fee to an event known as the “Donnybrook,” an underground, free-for-all cage match that pits twenty or so fighters against each other until one man is left standing. Winner takes home a grand prize of $100,000 (which is obscenely high for a film of this setting).

Meanwhile, Chainsaw Angus (Frank Grillo) is a vicious drug dealer who regularly supplies to Tammy. Accompanied by his psychologically battered sister, Delia (Margaret Qualley), with whom he shares a semi-incestuous relationship with, Angus has come to collect his due, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Trailing him is the sadistic Sheriff Whalen (James Badge Dale), himself a user, determined to put Angus down the first opportunity he gets.

Misery flows freely in the world of Donnybrook. Sutton’s characters are not circling the drain so much as they’ve hit rock bottom, with many of them turning to violence as the only solution. It’s a warped variation on the American Dream, one that aims for relevancy in today’s political climate and fractured state of the country, but Sutton fumbles mightily with his air of self-importance and indulgent storytelling, right down to his ornate and pretentious dialogue. Quiet and tender moments like Earl training his son how to box often fall by the wayside as a result. One wishes Donnybrook were a silent picture.

High on Mood, Low on Substance

Donnybrook is a pretty-looking picture, making great use of natural lighting and woodsy exteriors courtesy of David Ungaro’s cinematography. But when all is said and done, it’s the screenplay that brings everything down. Dialogue is unnatural and forced, and some of Sutton’s bizarre ideas don’t translate well from page to screen. For a salient point on the latter, consider this sequence where Angus and Delia have come to collect from a drug user (played by Pat Healy) who is past due. Rather than kill him outright, they tie him to a chair, and Delia strips down to her underwear and dry humps him to the point of orgasm, shooting him in right in the head as he does. Strange.

The cast does everything they can to keep Donnybrook afloat. Bell fares the best, offering a largely silent performance of a man who’s been to hell and back, unwilling to fold the poor hand he’s been dealt. Grillo, an actor who I enjoy seeing pop up more and more, seems tailor-made for a role as grizzled as someone named “Chainsaw Angus” (if you haven’t already, check out his little-seen thriller Wheelman on Netflix), but aside from his imposing stature the character is largely a one-note monster. Qualley is effective in moments of isolation (including an uncomfortable bit with her placing a loaded gun in her mouth), but much of the tension from scenes like that is deflated when she’s forced to deliver lines as clunky as “You still tweakin’ from killing those Muslim babies?” And Badge Dale makes the most out of his small role, but his character ends up being too poorly developed, ending up feeling extraneous to the central plot.

Donnybrook: Conclusion

All roads eventually converge at the eponymous event, promising a knock-down, drag-out battle royale for the ages. The climax of Donnybrook gets the sufficient juices going, offering a visceral showdown between Earl, Angus, and about two dozen other opponents in confined quarters. It’s a fitting burst of energy, but one that arrives a little too light, finding most of the proceedings a dull slog to get there.

Sutton means well, but his screenplay often gets in the way of his vision (including an embarrassing final line, which is a mere espousal of the film’s themes). One hopes he can settle down and make a bruiser of a B-movie without all the heavy-handed didacticism.

What do you think? Do Donnybrook’s ideas get in the way of its storytelling?

Donnybrook was released in limited theaters in the U.S. on February 15, 2019, and on VOD on February 22, 2019.

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