There is not enough good things I can say about this awesome movie. It’s gritty and in your face and a film a lot of people with daughters should see. It’s by far, in my opinion, Ellen Page’s best performance, ever! I’m intentionally not going to give much of the plot away, but I want to talk about how Page’s character Hailey is an awesome example of a Byronic heroine.
A Byronic heroine is based on a character type created by Lord Byron which in turn was based on him and his lifestyle. A literary critic once described this kid of hero as follows: “a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection.” This sums up the character of Hailey to a T.
There’s also a quote from a poem by Byron called The Corsain where he describes the character of Conrad a pirate hero as follows:
“He knew himself a villain—but he deemed
The rest no better than the thing he seemed;
And scorned the best as hypocrites who hid
Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did.
He knew himself detested, but he knew
The hearts that loath’d him, crouch’d and dreaded too.
Lone, wild, and strange, he stood a like exempt
From all affection and from all contempt.”
That’s Hailey…Lone, wild and strange!
“He knew himself a villain—but he deemed
The rest no better than the thing he seemed;
And scorned the best as hypocrites who hid
Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did.
He knew himself detested, but he knew
The hearts that loath’d him, crouch’d and dreaded too.
Lone, wild, and strange, he stood a like exempt
From all affection and from all contempt.”
That’s Hailey…Lone, wild and strange!
It’s just an amazing ride of a movie and the crazy thing is by the end you don’t know whether she is full on psychotic crazy or the kind of vigilante we can look the other way for. It’s a complex narrative performed by two actors at the top of their game.
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