TWO DEATHS OF HENRY BAKER: 2 ½ STARS. “may be the feel bad movie of the year.”
A study in toxic masculinity, greed and the sins of the father, “Two Deaths of Henry Baker,” a new thriller starring Gil Bellows now on VOD, is a pale imitation of neo-noir-westerns like “Hell or High Water.”
The action begins in a flashback to 1958 as young Henry Baker and his father hide a fortune in stolen gold coins. Cut to thirty years later. Henry, now played by Gil Bellows, is all grown up and ready to retrieve the cash. With young son Hank (Gunnar Burke) in tow, things go sideways. Henry kills his own brother (also Bellows) and gets arrested.
Decades pass. As Henry is about to be sprung from prison both his son Hank now played by Sebastian Pigott and his nephew Sam (Joe Dinicol), the son of Henry’s murdered brother, anxiously await. Everybody wants a taste of the gold, Sam wants revenge while corrupt Sheriff Ron Capman (Tony Curran) wants it all.
“Two Deaths of Henry Baker” is an ambitious movie that falls slightly short of its goal.
There are some nicely realized action set pieces and moments of tension, but those plusses are done in by slack pacing from director by Felipe Mucci. The movie’s machinations crawl along, which make some of the story’s leaps of logic even more noticeable than they might have been in a film with a quicker pace.
Having said that, the story of cross-generational toxicity resonates. Violence begets violence is not a new idea, but the handing of the baton from fathers to sons is nicely illuminated here and aided by the performances from Bellows and Dinicol.
“Two Deaths of Henry Baker” may be the feel bad movie of the year so far. Heavy on the nihilism, it’s a gritty portrait of intergenerational violence but doesn’t dig deep enough into the psychologically of the story for the characters to resonate.
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