PLOT
Former Special Forces soldier Ryan Logan (Sam Worthington) is struggling to adjust to life without his wife. To prevent the kidnapping of his only son, he is forced into the criminal underground.
REVIEW
Transfusion, a slow but masterfully made drama currently accessible on the Australian streaming site Stan, follows a war veteran and single father who battles to raise his son years after the passing of his wife. It occasionally feels like a formulaic story, but Sam Worthington’s powerful centre performance gives it some real life.
Matt Nable, an actor well-known to global audiences from movies like Riddick and Hacksaw Ridge, is making his directorial debut with Transfusion. Nable, who wrote the screenplay, plays a prominent supporting role and wisely keeps the film’s primary father-son interaction in the foreground.
In the film’s opening flashback, Worthington portrays Ryan Logan, a stoic shooter wounded in the neck during the Iraq War. Years later, he takes his son Billy deer hunting. Billy refuses to shoot and feels embarrassed in front of his father. Later, Billy asks his father if he’ll ever be as courageous as him.
The sad death of Ryan’s wife, Justine, in a vehicle accident throws his life into disarray. Eight years later, the father and son are still together as 16-year-old Billy goes to court for his most recent infraction, and Ryan relocates the two to their hometown so that he can pursue his most recent opportunity for employment.
Ryan tries to communicate with his baby and wants to give him the most meaningful life possible. Billy continues getting into trouble, and dad finds himself needing some fast money to bail him out. This requires Johnny, an old friend and fellow soldier, and includes stealing from the wrong types of people.
Transfusion won’t satisfy anyone hoping for action; while the last gunfight delivers a punch, the movie’s primary focus is on the psychological ramifications of violence on its perpetrators.
A combat veteran father and his adolescent son are battling to digest tragedy, but they are more alike than either of them realizes. Transfusion is a quiet, compassionate movie about characters that have developed a strong exterior but haven’t lost their humanity.
Worthington has experienced personal difficulties over the past ten years while still playing the lead in Hollywood blockbusters such as Terminator Salvation, Clash of the Titans, and Avatar and its sequel. But Transfusion allows him to show what a capable performer he is, and he takes possession of the screen with a heartfelt and profoundly sympathetic performance.
Rating – Three out of five stars.
However, it succeeds when focusing on the main characters and their relationship. The last scenes between a father and kid in Transfusion have a mysterious, eerie quality that delivers a punch.
Matt Nable is the film’s director. Michael and John Schwarz are the producers. Along with Sam Worthington, Phoebe Tonkin, Susie Porter, Matt Nable, Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, and Damien Strouthos, it also stars Phoebe Tonkin. The debut will take place on January 20, 2023. Transfusion is only available on the streaming platform Stan.
