Movie review - Barron's Cove

Barron’s Cove **1/2 (out of 5) This intense drama opens with the gruesome death of a young boy, Barron, when the prank pulled by a couple of his “friends” goes horribly awry. The perps deny any knowledge of what happened. Caleb (Garrett Hedlund) is the grieving father who smells a coverup when the local authorities claim it was a suicide, so he starts going all Bronson on those who oppose. His ex-wife blames him for failing to pick their son up after school. He blames his uncle (Stephen Lang) who runs the construction supply business that employs Caleb as hired muscle for collections and contract compliance among his clientele. That’s who demanded he perform one of his typical bullying tasks that made him late for his son.

Caleb demands the truth from one of the playmates, Ethan (Christian Convey) – a wretched brat who happens to be the adopted son of the politically ambitious scion of the region’s most powerful, influential family. Caleb goes off the rails over the lack of answers, spurred greatly by Ethan’s rather psychotic response to all qiuestions. Desperate for answers, Caleb kidnaps Ethan to scare the truth out of him. It does not go smoothly. As the hostage hiding and sweating situation progresses, a raft of dirty secrets, side deals and betrayals unfold. Violence occurs; more is threatened.

Hedlund gives an excellent performance, showing the thuggish and sympathetic sides of Caleb’s nature convincingly throughout his emotional rollercoaster of discovery. Convey starts out as thoroughly despicable before showing what may or may not be an element of vulnerability. He keeps us guessing. Lang is his usual hard-nosed evil self; he does boss-bully as well as anyone in the biz. Hamish Linklater turns in a well-played stretch from his usual nice-guy roles.

Cruelty towards children - however well-deserved it may seem in context – will be hard for many to watch. Otherwise, it’s a fast-moving, suspenseful action tale that navigates those waters capably.

(Barron’s Cove debuts on Blu-ray and DVD through Amazon from Well Go USA on 8/5/25.)