Get used to this expression, because you’re going to be seeing a lot of it.

Maybe it’s not fair to criticize Kristine Blackport for her lack of expression.  Clint Eastwood had a great career based on based on a near-permanent scowl.  Unfortunately, Blackport lacks the gravitas to make this look iconic.  On the other hand, she is attractive enough, and snappy enough, whether in jeans or evening gown, to keep our attention.

She plays Anna Carter, Executive Director for the Lamont Foundation by day, and vigilante by night.  Sometimes also vigilante by day as she is quite the go-getter.  Like Bruce Wayne, she has a family tragedy from her childhood that propels her.  While she lacks the means of Wayne Enterprises, she does have a private jet at her disposal and pretty flexible hours.  She also has a secret — she has 3 months to live, and wants to make them count.  According to IMDb, this was to be the first part of a trilogy.  After 7 years, I’m not holding my breath, but it is a pretty good hook.

We first see Anna on the Golden Gate Bridge, and it is not clear if she is thinking about jumping; possibly even to herself.  But later on a park bench with the bridge still in view, she gets a tip on her first victim.  She tracks a child pornographer to his home and pulls a gun on him.  After dispatching him, she drives back across the bridge because they spent the money to go to San Fran, might as well squeeze 3 scenes out of it.  Oops, a 4th as she tosses the gun into the bay the next morning.

After some exposition of her life and job, she is off to Chicago; which we know because we see the Hancock Building.  In the tenements, where a young size-2 white chick in designer clothes with no track marks will blend right in,  she knocks off a drug-addicted mother whose neglect resulted in the death of her kids.

In Texas, she tracks a judge who got off easy on some DUI deaths.  Unfortunately the bartender who blows into the Judge’s car breathalyzer goes unpunished.  Anna tracks the Judge weaving his way home (or possibly to another bar).  After she forces the Judge off the road to a watery death in a nifty scene, she exhibits this burst of fury and remorse:Again, maybe unfair — that’s more genuine remorse than Ted Kennedy showed.  OK, I am too harsh as she does yelp on a roller coaster in the next scene.

Here she is holding a gun on a naughty CEO as she rips him a new one for dumping toxic chemicals which led to cancer deaths — as you can see, a passionate subject to her given her condition :

And here about to blow away a priest:While there was a certain sameness to her performance, I actually did like her and liked the movie overall.  She was no superhero, and this brought some welcome realism to the genre.  It was a little somber, but there was some suspense, some action, some twists.  It had a little of a Lifetime / Hallmark / Death Wish vibe.  The ending, especially, owes a debt to the Charles Bronson movie.

If you’re looking for gore, this ain’t your pic — it really should have been rated PG-13.  Otherwise, a worthy addition to the revenge canon.

Post-Post Leftovers:

• That’s it for Hulu — too many commercials.
• Holy crap, does that director like the left side of the frame.
• I counted the gunshots — there were only 15.
• Her friend Chloe is a little flippant with the short-timer comments.
• At no point do I see the titular juncture.