The Wrath of Becky: Becky Could Have Been More Wrathful
By John Kirk
Rating: C+
If I seem like I’m being harsh, I want to state that I’ve been a big fan of Becky’s in the past.
I mean, it’s not every 13-year-old who can strategize her rage and anger into a concentrated plan of revenge that’s not only innovative but downright imaginatively inventive. Of course, I’m talking about her first film, Becky. This kid had potential.
The Wrath of Becky, however? Sigh. She could have been wrathier.
Put it this way: the only reason why this film was made was for a set-up of a sequel that is yet to come. There’s nothing more frustrating than restrained rage and in Becky’s case, even I felt like there was so much more this kid could do to activate the savage beast that lies in her heart.
If you ever had the good fortune to see the first film, then you know the background. A disgruntled teen mourning the loss of her mother — and faced with the prospect of spending a holiday with her father and his new wife and her son — Becky presents herself a rebellious and pretty selfish kid. When their cabin is invaded by escaped convicts looking for the key to a hidden cache, they unwittingly trigger Becky’s innate penchant for ultra-violence and revenge.
It had a pretty good cast for a small-budget film: Joel McHale, Kevin James as the surprisingly effective villain, and Toronto’s own Amanda Brugel. Of course, break-out star Lulu Wilson, who made a name for herself as the daughter of Will Riker and Deanna Troi in Star Trek: Picard Season Two, showed amazing talent for such a demanding role on a young performer.
I think that’s one of the reasons why I couldn’t fully enjoy the sequel. While Wilson does a great job of reprising the role, she’s the only recognizable face. In this film, Becky is now 16. She has a short history of flitting back and forth between foster homes, pathologically conning the system before she eventually settles with Elena (Denise Burse) an older woman who asks Becky no questions and accepts her rent. Denise is an ersatz grandmother figure she can trust. She has a waitress job at a local diner and for the most part, Becky has it good.
Because of her undisputed trauma, Becky subjects herself to intense combat-parkour training bouts in the nearby woods, vaulting over pit traps, running intense distances, and flinging combat knives into trees. She even trains her pit bull, Diego, to attack on command. For all intents and purposes, Becky has turned herself into a combat machine, foreshadowing the next time her paradise is disturbed and her inner rage is called into being.
That leads me to the second reason why I couldn’t enjoy this film as much as I wanted to. While Becky is working her shift at the diner, three men walk in who belong to an organization known as “The Noblemen” – a contemporary analogy might be the Oathkeepers in American recent politics. With their ultra-misogynistic attitudes, it’s clear that Becky and this sample representative of American patriotic insurgence are bound to clash and sure enough, they follow her home and the formulaic sequence of events repeats itself.
But… it just wasn’t violent enough.
Seann William Scott is the leader of the Noblemen. Remembered for roles in the American Pie films, while Scott has had some action roles in the past (Bulletproof Monk for instance), it’s a hard sell to see “Stiffler” as the leader of a group of domestic terrorists.
While he manages to pull it off, the actual engagement between him, his flunkies and Becky is disappointingly limited. Given what we are set up to expect on the basis of the last film, the confrontation is quite uninspired. I mean, even Diego the dog is a notable let-down.
(There is an exception when one of the group begs Becky for his life. I won’t give away details, but it is probably the funniest moments of the film. But this is a film that shouldn’t need to rely on cheap laughs when its mainstay is supposed to be about revenge.)
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that I enjoy violent films, but The Wrath of Becky is an example of a film that disappoints its audience with a failed promise. Given the extreme violence of the last film, we aren’t just shocked enough by the battle between her and the group of antagonists who have a veritable arsenal in their barn to start a small war.
In fact, there’s a scene where we see Becky light up a truly evil smile at her discovery, but then takes only a fraction of what the audience expects her to arm herself was. If this isn’t a lost opportunity in the story, then I don’t know what else could be.
Finally, Becky’s mentality is the other factor that stopped me from really throwing myself into the story. In the first film, Becky became what she was out of necessity. In this film, it’s as if she truly wants to be this savage, soulless monster bent on killing out of fun. So, if that’s what’s in her heart, why don’t we see it come out more often? Another example of frustration for not just the character, but also the audience.
The only saving grace for this is seen at the very end of the film. The final scene confirms that this film is simply the stepping stone towards another sequel. But that’s a promise that will be hard to keep unless the film creators step up their game and truly release Becky’s true potential for revenge and I hope they do.
I mean, she’s got potential.
The Wrath of Becky. Written and directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote. Starring Lulu Wilson, Seann William Scott, Denise Burse, Jill Larson, Courtney Gains, Michael Sirow, Aaron Dalla Villa, Matt Angel, and Kate Siegel. In theatres June 9.