You Were Never Really Here Movie Review (2017)

An esoteric thriller about a traumatized veteran who works to rescue trafficked girls, You Were Never Really Here’s impressionistic style becomes increasingly difficult to connect with.

Joaquin Phoenix is one of those actors known for taking an array of different roles. Starring in everything from Napoleon to Beau Is Afraid, he is brave in his choices, and clearly isn’t worried about the box office numbers. You get the impression that he looks to create art and delve deep, no matter the ultimate Hollywood result. And when this is your strategy, some films will be hits and others will be misses.

You Were Never Really Here is about Joe, a tormented veteran who now works on the down-low as a heavy who recovers trafficked girls and women. He lives with and cares for his aging mother, and is very careful about who he interacts with.

This is a bit of a tricky movie, and I attribute that to the director. Lynne Ramsay, who wrote the screenplay and directed (as well as Die My Love and others), has a tendency to use impressions rather than direct storytelling. She skirts the edges of what she tells the audience and you’re meant to infer from the information provided. Some people love it, and others not as much.

In this film, you exist with Joe (played by a reserved Joaquin Phoenix) in the present day. He has quick flashbacks of time in the military, visuals he can’t shake, and trauma that he lives with. He now has running thoughts of killing himself and/or occasionally challenging himself to see how much torture he can take. That is just my impression, Ramsay never tells you directly.

There are some lovely visuals throughout You Were Never Really Here, including one of Joe burying a body under the water as he hovers with light around him. It’s a beautiful scene, and the one that I’ll think of whenever I think of this film.

You also never quite know if what you are watching is reality or something that Joe has conjured in his mind – on purpose or by accident. This is a broken man whose only real connection is his mother, and he has some internal combativeness there as well. And while the mystery of his reality is a constant in the movie, it didn’t leave the impression on me that I hoped it would. I existed with Joe, but I never had many feelings about him or his journey.

You Were Never Really Here is an interesting ride, and there were a few times that I found myself almost connecting to it, but it never happened. There are small bits of meat to grab onto here, but the shreds slide through your fingers before you can capture them. That said, I was not a fan of Die My Love either, so I can definitely appreciate what Ramsay does, but maybe her art isn’t something that I can fully enjoy. Maybe you will.

Runtime: 89 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: R

Languages Spoken In The Film: English

Should You Watch It? Yes

Did I Cry? Nope

My Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Available: Free for Amazon Prime members, to rent on Prime Video, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms