They say blood is thicker than water – but very few of us should find ourselves in a situation where we discover this to be quite literally true. It is also the foundation of Riff Raff, in which Dito Montiel, working from a screenplay by John Pollono, goes in search of answers relating to this particular concept. It’s done through the story of Vincent, a former hitman who spent years working in organised crime, but has recently decided to live out the rest of his years in peace, retiring to a beautiful home in rural Maine, which he shares with his second wife and her son, who he has adopted as his own, and who he intends to turn into a good man, hoping to aid him in avoiding the same mistakes he made. However, their pleasant New Years celebrations are disrupted by the arrival of the only people they do not want to see: Vincent’s first wife and their son Rocco (who followed in his father’s footsteps in terms of becoming a criminal), who arrive unexpectedly, and are in urgent need of a place to hide, as Rocco is being hunted down by a pair of Vincent’s former colleagues after discovering that he was the culprit in the brutal murder of their leader’s son. A very odd film that exists somewhere between darkly comedic satire and violence-driven psychological thriller, Riff Raff is a bundle of peculiarities, and it’s not necessarily a film that knows exactly where it intends to go, and ultimately becomes quite one-dimensional, despite the promise we are presented with at the start. An equal blend of merits and shortcomings make this a film that struggles with its identity, and eventually highlights its inability to choose a precise direction, which all creates quite a dull and uninspiring work that is nothing more than a bundle of missed opportunities and misguided decisions that underline the insufficient nature of this otherwise solid and somewhat entertaining film.

The concept of someone retreating from their past and seemingly managing to escape without too much trouble, only to realise that you cannot unrun your secrets forever, is a fascinating concept but also one that is quite limited and overdone to the point of actually being quite frustrating when there is clearly not much being done to support this idea – its a plot structure that works best as the foundation for something bolder and more interesting, rather than being the main propellant for the plot. Unfortunately, Riff Raff firmly occupies the category of films that believe assembling a large group of eccentric characters and having them constantly in conflict is more than enough to draw on these ideas, one of the many misguided choices that form the bevvy of frustrations associated with this film. At its core, Riff Raff is a film that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, or precisely how it intends to achieve it – and while the premise itself is promising, there is simply not enough to justify many of these decisions, particularly the clear lack of acknowledgement of the themes that would otherwise be quite notable in the hands of just about any other filmmaker. Montiel has explored crime and the impact it has on the domestic lives of people on all sides before – A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints was an impressive debut, and he was clearly trying to allude to some of those themes when cobbling this film together, which is written by someone who has shown a lot of promise. The issue here is not that the plot is bad, but rather that it doesn’t do enough with its themes to justify some of the heaviness that lingers beneath the surface – and this is one of the primary shortcomings that drive this film and make it so bizarre, in a way that was clearly not at all by design, rarely being able to make any clear statement on the core themes that should have been the absolute priority, but end up being nothing more than an afterthought.

Make no mistake looking at the star-studded ensemble that the film draws on quite heavily in its promotion – these recognisable actors are indeed present in the film (most of them are very good), but they’re essentially all supporting players, with the de facto lead being someone who is mostly quite absent from the film in terms of its marketing, namely Miles J. Harvey, a young actor who does have a lot of potential, but who also proves to be an incredibly misused lead, being thrown into the centre of this film without an ounce of character development or reasoning for certain choices, and a lack of dedication to ensuring that he was actually a likable protagonist, with the inverse actually being the case. He’s a charming presence, but he’s far from strong enough of an actor to lead this film, especially when there are some genuinely interesting actors that surround him, but are never given the focus they deserve. Ed Harris and Bill Murray are quite good – the former captures the feeling of regret and remorse for his past actions very well, and prove to bring a tenderness to the role of a man willing to do anything to protect his family, while the latter is a surprisingly effective villain, tapping into a sinister side that we have rarely seen from him, but which proves to be extremely worthwhile. In fact, the one mistake the film makes is not giving more time to Murray and his screen partner Pete Davidson, who are both terrific – the film may have been far better had it been more focused on them as a deadly Laurel and Hardy-style comedy team, rather than a few brief but memorable interludes. Lewis Pullman is the most dull character, doing what he can with a poorly written role. However, in a film about masculinity, its the women who are most memorable – Jennifer Coolidge may be playing another airheaded but lovable eccentric, but she’s so wonderful, we can forgive the film from not using her properly, whereas Gabrielle Union is the epitome of grace and sophistication – whether it was by design or simply a result of casting great actors, Riff Raff is almost worth it solely for Coolidge and Union, who anchor the entire film on their own.

When assembling such a strong cast, it almost feels like an act of rebellion to not give them anything particularly notable to do – the fact that some of them not only emerge unscathed but also deliver relatively strong performances is a minor miracle, since Riff Raff as a whole it not a particularly encouraging affair, and ultimately comes across as quite stale and uninspiring at the best of times. Unfortunately, there are many areas in which this film not only needed improvement, but also to be entirely reworked. The film as a whole is simply just lacklustre in both substance and style – one of the core areas in which it falters is the complete inability to choose a tone, with Montiel struggling to determine whether he was making a comedy or a drama. They’re not mutually exclusive and can co-exist exceptionally well, but the entire construction of this film is profoundly weak and lacks any clear direction, trying too hard to be funny in some moments, and straining when it comes to the tension at the core of the film, providing very little clarity and feeling like it is simply a broad jumble of misguided ideas that truly never go anywhere particularly notable or interesting, becoming nothing more than a painfully dull affair. There are a few moments where it does feel like some risks are being taken – the climactic confrontation between the adversaries is filled with discomfort and a sense of danger, and there comes a point where we feel like it is going to make some very bold decisions in terms of its characters and their fates, but it swerves at the final moment and becomes just another predictable action comedy in which not even the most expendable characters can be sacrificed. You could argue that the biggest problem with Riff Raff is that it was made as a comedy – all of these actors are proficient at dramatic work, and the film may have been more interesting had it been grittier and more complex, rather than trying to infuse every moment with a sense of comedy that is neither funny nor insightful.

It can be exhausting (and frankly annoying) to watch a film with so much promise that is so wholeheartedly squandered, to the point where it borders on parody at one too many points. It’s a weakly-constructed film where the writing is solid but not all that revolutionary, the direction unstable (it was so obvious that a lot of this film was built in the editing room, since the tone and register was beyond inconsistent), and the performances ranging from very good to outright dull, never quite feeling cohesive in any way. It’s uninteresting and lacks the spark needed to exist to make this film compelling – the characters are poorly developed (none of them face any true internal conflict beyond the obvious, which feels like a missed opportunity), and there’s very little discernible tension driving this film, making it a mostly dour affair without any redeeming qualities. It’s solid enough to be entertaining, and it avoids being actively bad, but when handling material with this much promise and an incredible cast, being competent is far from ideal, and makes us wonder whether it can be considered even a marginal success. Montiel is an interesting filmmaker insofar as he toggles the line between a director-for-hire and someone with a strong authorial voice, but his vision is massively diminished here, and makes Riff Raff an uninspiring and pointless affair without much merit outside of doing the bare minimum at the best of times.