You can describe “Communion” as a revenge movie. If you technically want to refer to it as such, it counts in some way. Our protagonist Joe is spending most of his time questioning his faith and belittling his own life, when he’s not mourning the death of his son with his wife, who seemingly spends her time in her son’s room weeping over his toys and cuddling with them.
“Communion” is not a revenge thriller in the sense that “Death Wish” is one. But it’s more about an angry man who is looking for a purpose now that his son has gone. Apparently his faith hinged on his son’s own existence, and now that he has died, Joe just doesn’t believe anymore. Joe then walks around his city going in and out of pubs, looking for his own meaning of existence, and striking down really bad people on occasion with a short baseball bat he uses to club them with.
When Joe abandons his life and his wife, he goes on the search for a purpose, I assume. Much of it isn’t too clear, and I was often confused as to what the journey meant, overall. Was Joe trying to look for the man who murdered his child? Was he looking for a reason not to murder the man who killed his child? Was he looking for God? Along the way, Joe meets Maria, a Mexican run away as played by Ana Gonzalez Bello. While Bello is fine in the film, she feels woefully miscast, and seems to also be in the wrong film, most times. She gives Joe someone to bounce his conflict off of since she is also a lost soul, but most times she’s an ineffective character who feels injected to add tension.
Mid-way, “Communion” tends to drift from its original premise and delve in to a lot of situation drama with assorted characters. Maria also tells Joe a long story that’s intercut with odd animation that was simply lost on me. “Communion” wants to be a dark elegy, a gripping soul searching drama, a road film, and a tale about revenge all at once, and never quite pulls it off, unfortunately. While director Greg Hall seems to have an idea of what he wants to convey with “Communion,” the movie is often too tonally confused and lacking in compelling material to really suck us in. It’s a solid effort that unfortunately misses the mark.