When Priscilla and Mary Beth Connolly lost their mom, Mary Margaret, they had little idea of the debt she had left behind. The two twentysomethings had been so consumed by keeping the family’s Easter Cove fish shop afloat and caring for their failing mother over the last year that they really didn’t think about much else.
But when the funeral is finally upon them, when grief washes over them like the salty waves that splash the pier on the outskirts of their small Maine fishing village, then there is time to look at the whole picture.
For Priscilla, that clarity only means that she’ll have to work harder. She can save the house. She can keep the shop going. She’ll simply have to show a bit more of that Connolly grit that old female friends of her mother’s often speak of.
For Mary Beth, however, the news of the family’s deep, mortgaged debt simply means that her dreams of going to college are lost.
So, while Priscilla cleans up after the funeral reception and sets off for a good night’s sleep, Mary Beth runs off to get drunk. She soon finds herself careening around the village streets in an equally drunken stranger’s car. And that leads to becoming a potential victim of rape.
Mary Beth, however is also filled with that Connolly grit. And in a heartbeat, a harpoon jammed into a would-be assailant’s neck transforms her from victim into … murderer? She quickly runs back to Priscilla, her only port in a storm.
The smart move for the sisters would be to call the police: to admit to Mary Beth’s choices and actions. But a smart choice isn’t always the only choice that jumps to mind. Sometimes there are fears and ramifications that push you in other directions.
Priscilla and Mary Beth’s mom knew that. And even though the younger Connolly women know nothing of their own mother’s past, questionable choices—or the actions of a number of the women in this small, briny community—they’re about to make a very questionable choice of their own.
And their choice will accidentally nudge something. Priscilla and Mary Beth’s next decision will kick over a metaphorical domino that will eventually knock down another, and another until the entire village of Easter Cove starts falling apart.
Worlds built on sinful, foolish actions can be like that.
Priscilla doesn’t always make the wisest of choices in this story, but it’s evident that she is hardworking and caring. Every bad choice that Priscilla makes springs from a desire to love and protect her sister.
And we see that same kind of attitude reflected in some of the older women in the town. It becomes evident that these women have made poor decisions in the past, but they’re trying to make things right in the present—even to the point of exposing past actions to the authorities. “God knows how we can ever forgive ourselves,” one of the women says. “But we’re trying to do what’s right.”
When the Connolly sisters find out about their mother’s checkered past, Mary Beth balks at the idea of regularly taking the ailing woman to church. But we find out that a number of the women of the town are turning to the church as a way of facing past sins.
People use phrases such as “God rest her soul” and declarations that their “thoughts and prayers” are with others. And we hear of an earnest young man volunteering at a church-sponsored soup kitchen.
On several different occasions we hear the moans and thumping sounds of couples having sex in an adjoining room. Several young women dress in skimpy outfits. And one of them sits on two different police officer’s laps, lightly cooing and caressing them. An older policeman talks of how hot a woman use to be in her youth.
A local fishing boat is named the “Chasin’ Tail.”
[Spoiler Warning] As elements of the town’s rough-edged past are revealed, we learn that a number of women rallied together years before to save the town from financial ruin by establishing a local house of prostitution, hidden under cover of a bed and breakfast. The women ran the business side of things for decades and arranged to have young girls brought in to service fishermen.
A drunken man slides his hand up an equally inebriated Mary Beth’s thigh while she’s driving, causing her to crash the car. Later he grabs her and manhandles her. She pulls away just before their struggle turns into a rape. We find out, later, that this man was asigned the job of recruiting young girls for prostitution.
During that attempted assault, Mary Beth stabs a man in the neck with a large harpoon. He falls to the ground, bleeding out, but still grabs at her leg. She then smashes in his face with a brick (off-camera). When trying to deal with the body, Priscilla and Mary Beth drag the dead man around and decide to lop off his arms and legs with a boning knife (an act, again, done off-camera).
We see patches of blood from two different murders and bloody residue on a knife and a pair of boots A young woman steps into a shower and washes a large amount of gore off her body (seen from the knees down). A seaweed-entangled corpse washes up on shore (seen close-up).
A drunken woman is smothered with a pillow. A woman crashes her vehicle into a large road sign. A young woman is slapped across the face.
More than 20 f-words and nearly as many s-words join multiple uses of “a–,” “d–n,” “b–ch” and “b–tard.” The c-word is spit out once along with a couple crude references to male and female genitalia. God’s name is misused seven times (six of which combine “god” with “d–n”).
People smoke cigarettes or puff on an e-cigarette a couple times. Mary Beth tosses back booze and shares her flask with others.
She’s not alone. We see people drinking beer and alcohol at a funeral reception and at a local bar. An older woman regularly imbibes. And several characters drink to the point of staggering inebriation. One guy snorts cocaine.
There are a number of illegal and corrupt choices exposed in the course of the story—elements that involve past and present prostitution and manipulation. We also see that Mary Beth is as ready to turn easily to theft, manipulation and lies, as is the case with many others in Easter Cove.
In spite of its title, Blow the Man Down has very little to do with men. Instead, this is a film about a small fictional fishing village held together by corruption, murder, guilt and years of iniquity. Oh, and by women. There are lots of women in this film dealing with decades of bad choices.
This noirish movie-onion peels its story skins back one by one. It’s crafted to create the realistic, gritty feel of a small Maine backwater, scented by the waft of salty waves and rotting fish heads.
That doesn’t, however, make it something that you’ll necessarily want streaming into your family room and splashing all over your comfy sectional. For all of its sea song-underscored wet-wharf texture, this film contains more than enough rankly crude language, disquieting choices and bloodletting to leave behind a stain.b
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
