Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Azura Skye, Bryce Pinkham, Ashley Bell, Zach Rand, Taen Phillips, Liam Seib, Deborah Hedwell, Jason Gupton, Dan Daily, Lindsay Jackson, Kristine Sorenson, Jenna Marie Hess, Gretchen Portelles, Chadwick Davilsaint, Maikel Ramic, Josh England, Stevie Holcomb.

Whether by design or by accident, there is nothing in the world that can prepare you for the shock of a mother having been party to the death of her children, to witness the imbalance in the universe and the chaos that then ensues, is to understand that the world has always been one of identifying the curse that made empathy, especially that of the feminine psyche, die inside. For when a woman feels as though she is worthless, when she has been ridiculed to the point of defeat, where else is she to go but out in a blaze of resentment, of anger, of complete and utter destruction.

In modern cinema the framing of the classical Greek myth of Medea would not be tolerated, after all the contemporary audience dictates that a woman is strong enough to overcome all obstacles, that the battles in her life may set her back, but they will never defeat her. This is true for the most part, after all women are mentally and emotionally stronger than men for the most part, but there is the effect of being overwhelmed, of rage that cannot be directed outward and which has the knock-on effect on the mind, something real of either gender, that when the final resolve has been spent, when The Swerve in the road becomes too much of a detour, that is when Hell in human form breaks loose.

Unless you are unaware of the destruction that Medea caused in mythology, the comparison between Director and Scriptwriter Dean Kapsalis’ creation of Holly is undeniable, left emotionally scarred on all sides from those she has loved, her husband, her sons, parents, sister and in the end her young teenage lover, to the point where the only option left open to her is death. However, it is in this embrace of death that the seismic fall out ensues, and in her inverted rage, so the legend of Medea stretched out from classic Greek tales to modern day cinema.

Dean Kapsalis’ The Swerve is bleak, but that is not to say it isn’t great cinema, for in the performance of Azura Skye as Holly, the sense of despair, of anguish, the apparent lack of control except for the ability to poison a creature in the act of peace, is enough to make the film stand out in the same way that you see in films such as The shining the complexity in the female lead to withstand, even for a short while, the complete mental breakdown that comes with the sacrifices made having been in vain.

The Swerve will divide opinion, the sense of misery and dejection will arguably be unnerving, objectionable, to some, but the delivery of the film is its goal, it shows that no matter how enlightened we believe we have become, we are still prisoners of the myths that surround us, of loving a family that treats us in return like dirt, of being vulnerable to our own desires and flaws, in this diverging of the modern narrative, we are revealed as being more human than extraordinary being; and it is a refreshing change to see such a subject tackled in a way that both judges and reminds us not to take our sanity for granted.

Ian D. Hall