Pietà (Kim Ki-duk, 2012)

A brutal debt collector, preying on the owners of failing machine shops, is visited by a woman who claims to be his mother. After his initial rejection of her, their relationship takes on sickly tone which is both Oedipal and parodic of a happy family.
This did very well at the international festivals, and the reason is clear: it is relentlessly grim in its outlook and prospects, and mulls heavily over the meaninglessness of anything except emotional attachment, which is then also shown to be an Achilles heel. This means it cannot be mistaken for a cheap thriller, and critics like that. But it also means that the characters are nigh-on impossible to empathise with, and as the Shakespearean revenge adage 'blood will have blood' is followed to the bitter end, contrivance takes over substance, which is something a film this bleak cannot really allow to happen.

5/10