NOW ON VOD! Getting old happens to everyone, and with it comes countless worries and anxieties about the unknown. Will family be around to help? It’s not always clear. Such is the setting of Karl R. Hearne’s feature The G, in which an aging woman seeks vengeance when she and her terminally ill husband are taken from their home and held in a mysterious housing facility.
Ann (Dale Dickey), also known as “The G,” is a chain-smoking, vodka-drinking retiree who is caring for her terminally ill husband. Her appearance and home are disheveled as she has let dirty dishes pile up with minor home maintenance gone neglected. Suspicious men invade Ann’s home one evening, subduing and restraining the couple as they are forced to an undisclosed living facility. The facility’s overseer, Rivera (Bruce Ramsay), explains that this is Ann and her husband’s new home, where they will live out the rest of their days alongside other retirees.
Ann’s granddaughter, Emma (Romaine Denis), refers to her grandmother as “The G.” After a couple of weeks, she discovers her grandmother’s disappearance. Visiting her grandmother’s house, she finds a for-sale sign and moving men clearing out the remaining possessions. Emma investigates the whereabouts of her grandmother and grandfather while trying to devise a plan to get her back home. She elicits the help of a handyman who has means and some insight into the elder facility.
“Suspicious men invade Ann’s home one evening, subduing and restraining the couple…”
Rivera uses the brute force of his henchmen to maintain power. His purpose is to leach the remainder of Ann’s finances through the manipulation of his guardianship. With help from Emma and a friend from Ann’s past, Rivera has miscalculated the difficulty of his objective.
The youngest and oldest of our population are the most vulnerable in our society. My stomach turns when I see a story on the local news about another senior citizen having been verbally and physically abused in a nursing home. I really like the premise of The G and support its stand against taking advantage of elders.
I was expecting an action-fueled flick of a granny turned Tony Soprano as she goes on a revenge spree. The movie kind of did and kind of didn’t live up to that. The plot for The G is a little hard to follow, and details are sparse. Rivera is referred to as the legal guardian of Ann and her husband, accounting for how easy it was for him to remove them from their home and assume control of their well-being, but the how and why of this guardianship is never explained. It’s alluded to that “The G” has a history of being a very tough customer, but again the explanation is foggy. In general, there are many points that the movie just assumes you accept without clarification in order for the plot to move forward.
Dale Dickey, as “The G,” is a familiar face with a powerful presence. You might recognize her mostly recently from roles in Fallout and The Mandalorian. She plays the revenge-driven granny with a mouth full of profanities masterfully. Though the character is no-nonsense and rough around the edges, Dickey brings an appreciated empathy to the role.
The G is a notable tale of vengeance on behalf of elders who have been conned and neglected. The unique plot and talented acting will be worth the viewing.
"…revenge driven granny with a mouth full of profanities..."
