Mercy Road Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Mercy Road Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 10, 2023

Mercy Road offers an audacious concept along with a sometimes muddled storyline, but its structural and presentational conceits may be enough to offset any lingering doubts about what exactly is actually going on in the tale. Set almost entirely in a truck speeding down a mist strewn highway that is like something out of The Fog, Mercy Road offers a distraught father named Tom (Luke Bracey), who is evidently attempting to save his daughter from some imminent harm, though Tom himself may have already crossed the line of vigilante justice, perhaps arguably into downright madness, from the get go. There are plenty of films offering characters forced to do things which otherwise would chafe against their moral grain, and at least in some iconic franchises like Saw, those hapless individuals are "instructed" on what tasks they need to accomplish by disembodied voices. Both of those elements are very much at play in Mercy Road, but this is less of an outright horror enterprise than it is a document of one man's emotional and mental unraveling, perhaps for reasons neither he nor somewhat ironically the audience is ever able to ferret out.

Bracey carries this film virtually single handedly, on screen for all but a few seconds (and even then he's "around", so to speak). This rather fascinating approach occurs despite the supposed participation of a number of other performers, probably most notably Toby Jones as Tom's offscreen antagonist who phones him to tell him to "keep driving", though either to or from what may not be completely clear. A number of other characters are at the very least alluded to, and a couple of them also show up in phone calls, but this is undeniably Bracey's film, and he does an overall very impressive job, despite the fact that the story begins in medias res with Tom already "turned up to 11" (again, so to speak), leaving little room for even more hyperbolism, though that doesn't keep Bracey from trying.

This is probably going to be a frustrating viewing experience for those with claustrophobia or who require every jot and tittle of a plotline spelled out in unmistakable clarity. For those who admire a certain kind of "stagecraft" which relies pretty much on one set and one character, Mercy Road may well be a distinctively original journey.

Mercy Road Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mercy Road is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa Mini as the camera of record, but fails to specify the resolution of the DI. This is a surprisingly well detailed looking presentation, despite a conceit that relies on virtually the entire film taking place in Tom's car, often in less than fulsome lighting. As can probably be gleaned from the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, there's an omnipresent blue grading to much of the presentation, but detail levels are still unexpectedly sharp, aided and abetted by the repeated use of extreme close-ups of Tom's face. The film utilized virtual backgrounds, which add to the nightmarish, surreal quality of things, but which also perhaps intentionally add in a degree of softness and lack of detail that the practical items don't suffer from.

Mercy Road Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mercy Road features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that probably can't provide a wealth of "showy" surround effects simply because the film's setting is so confined. That said, there is most definitely some immersion at play in the track, including background ambient environmental effects and even the sudden, almost startle provoking, sounds of Tom's phone insisting it be answered. A lot of the story simply offers Tom talking to various people, and as such, surround activity can be minimal. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Mercy Road Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:19)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Additionally, packaging features a slipcover.

Mercy Road Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's a third group of people who should probably avoid this feature in addition to the aforementioned claustrophobes and complete clarity seekers, and that would be anyone who is even a slight arachnophobe. I'll simply refer you to the screenshots for a few salient clues in that regard. I didn't know what to expect going into to Mercy Road, and at least somewhat comically, I'm still not, even after having seen the film, but co-writer and director John Curran has created a very unique experience with this outing. Technical merits are solid, and Mercy Road comes Recommended.