Are we the family we’ve come from or the family we create?
This is the major question at the center of the Graham and Parker Phillips-helmed Rumble Through The Dark, a drama adapted from the Michael Farris Smith March 2018 novel The Fighter. Set in the Mississippi Delta, the sky nearly-always filled with storm clouds and the threat of an oncoming storm, Rumble utilizes setting and characters to explore the question, even as it persistently beats its protagonist, an aged brawler named Jack Boucher, against foes literal and metaphorical. Released by Lionsgate and Screen Media Films in early November ahead of a December home release, audiences looking for something more adult and less direct may find their cinematic needs satisfied, even if the structure is fairly rote for this genre of picture.
Aaron Eckhart as Jack Boucher in RUMBLE THROUGH THE DARK. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate.
Down on his luck fighter Jack Boucher (Aaron Eckhart) needs to come up with nearly $45 grand in order to save the family home from foreclosure and get out from underneath his debt to Big Momma Sweet (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), who has eyes looking to find him everywhere. Just as things seem to go in Jack’s favor, one of those sets of eyes finds Jack and, in the process, set him back to square one. Meanwhile, wayward carnival performer Annette (Bella Thorne) arrives in town and, on the way, unknowingly stumbles across the site of Jack’s bad fortune. These two seem destined to cross paths, but what happens after is not yet written and is dangerously unpredictable for them both.
The structure of Rumble is different than one may expect, and this may come from Smith serving as screenwriter, a first for the author, who likely maintains a great deal of the book in the process. What this means is that Jack and Annette are introduced separately, with the first hour setting up his backstory (it is the foundation of the entire narrative) and her own. This is a smart choice as her setup is far simpler; she’s traveling with the circus while also looking for her father, a man whom has always been a mystery outside of two facts that she keeps close. By separately introducing the parts of the pair, this allows the first hour to take its time, establishing set, tone, and characters, along with their motivations. The Jack side of things is deeper than the Annette side, consisting of its own natural antagonist of a sort that is seemingly dealt with upon Jack’s intersection with Annette. This ultimately leaves the Annette’s side of things lighter because all the focus, with the pair together, shifts onto Jack.
Bella Thorne as Annette in RUMBLE THROUGH THE DARK. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate.
Rumble is truly Jack’s story and the manner in which the characters are explored may surprise most audiences who are used to being told things versus having to deduce them on their own. Rather than lean on exposition, Smith’s script relies on inference and flashback, a choice that requires the audience to lean-in more and for Eckhart to utilize every aspect of himself physically. For instance, we don’t need to know the scope or medical straits Jack may be in after years of fighting, seeing him clutch his head repeatedly, scrounge for meds, and confess difficulty keeping details straight leads us to recognize the signs of traumatic brain injury (TBI). We don’t need to know exactly how ferocious Jack is because even his regular walking stance is one of someone on guard, ready to attack or defend, though from the outside he appears unable to stand up straight from the damage done due to his fighting past. In a favorite little detail, when Jack goes to walk into his foreclosed home, the camera shoots him from inside, so he’s facing us as he opens the door and stands in the doorway. Due to the design of the door, Jack appears small, nearly child-like with his slumped shoulders and wide/high frame. Given the character’s deep desire to save the home from going to someone else, given the choices the Phillipses make to shoot Jack within rooms that carry deep significance to him as a child, possessing only physical remnants of those memories and a few objects of his current life, the choice to shoot Jack in this way drives home how in-search of stability he is. Conversely, when Jack goes to visit his aging mother in her long-term care facility, the Phillipses opt to shoot Jack from behind so that we can see where he’s going, but also to capture his figure taking up nearly all the doorway space, in direct opposition of the visual text from before. He is the adult entering the space of someone he is to care for and, as we learn through the story, has been a poor caretaker, thus leading to this story and his last-ditch attempt to make things whole. When not using framing devices or physical performance, the Phillipses also make sure that many scenes, especially at night, are bathed in some variation of red, growing deeper and more prevalent in the scene as danger of one form or another grows. It’s a small detail, but one which establishes the emotional tone nicely.
Conversely, having not read the source novel, one tends to see the convergence, the turn, and the ending coming due to the structure. There’s a great deal that this review is leaving out, some mentioned in the trailer, some not, and to delve into what exactly one sees coming would require identifying a few of these things. So, instead, using what is easily known (Jack is in debt to a dangerous person, Jack meets Annette who has needs of her own, Jack wants to save his family home, and Jack will have to fight for the person he owes in order to do so), one can very easily see where this journey is headed. It makes no difference if Jack lives or dies, that part isn’t what matters, it’s how he gets to the point of conflict on his journey, and we can call just about every shot that comes down. This is not a slight on Smith, rather it’s an acknowledgement of all the films that have come before it who have used this structure. Perhaps, in novel form, there’s more investment and other elements which make the choices less expected, but by being restricted to a specific runtime, the narrative is left with fewer roads to travel. Luckily, Eckhart delivers a unique enough performance to want to hang in to see where it goes.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Big Momma Sweet in RUMBLE THROUGH THE DARK. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate.
Rumble Through The Dark doesn’t so much answer its defining question as suggest one. Unlike other dramas which would hold your hand from start-to-finish, it delicately places its own ruminating ideation before the audience to process however they like. It’s not as though the film ends on a mystery, driven by psychological despair similar to the recently released Mercy Road, so much as the conclusion wonderfully overlaps memory with the present in such a way that intention is left to be inferred rather than spoken aloud. It’s a lovely touch on a film loaded with blood and physical brutality to take a moment for softness. It’s because of things like this, the performances, and the thoughtfulness of the cinematography, that one appreciates Rumble by its conclusion, even if not wholly enamored with it.
In select theaters November 3rd, 2023.
Available VOD and digital November 10th, 2023.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD December 19th, 2023.
For more information, head to the official Lionsgate Rumble Through The Dark webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: Home Video, In Theaters, Reviews, streaming
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