Rating: R | Runtime: 116 minutes
Release Date: June 6th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Well Go USA Entertainment
Director(s): Evan Ari Kelman
Writer(s): Evan Ari Kelman

Do we have to be the worst thing we’ve ever done?

The easy comparison point—if also a lofty one—for Evan Ari Kelman’s directorial debut Barron’s Cove is Mystic River. You can see it in Garrett Hedlund’s performance as Caleb upon learning about the brutal death of his young son Barron. He’s screaming so loudly at the scene of the crime that multiple cops prove necessary to hold him back, just like Sean Penn in Clint Eastwood’s modern classic. And we assume things might play out similarly too since Caleb is a bruiser working for his criminal uncle Benji (Stephen Lang), a man with the connections and reach to find out what happened so he can unleash righteous vengeance.

Where Kelman takes things in a different direction, however, is that Caleb isn’t entirely a “bad man.” Yes, he does bad things. Yes, he’s defined by the trauma and abuse that has cultivated a violent anger in his soul. Yes, he’s let his ex-wife (Brittany Snow’s Jackie) down and wasn’t there to save their boy. But he was a good father. He loved his son and would do anything for him—even suffer through the dark cloud of his life to protect Barron from the painful childhood he endured. That boy was everything to Caleb and you can believe it when he says he has nothing left to lose. He’ll bring Hell to earth to discover the truth and do what’s necessary to make it right. And, unlike Penn’s Jimmy, Caleb can still come out the hero.

That shouldn’t excuse his actions, though. Credit Kelman for staying true to the flawed characters he’s brought to life because “good” people who do bad things don’t get to just escape the damage left in their wake. Caleb is therefore more antihero than hero. He’s the film’s protagonist, but he’s still driven by reactionary impulses that more often than not lead towards inexcusable deeds. So, the real dramatic arc isn’t about the inevitable reveal of what happened (we already mostly know courtesy of the opening scene), but whether Caleb will do what he sets out to do or realize the truth is more complicated than his rage demands. Because if anybody knows what it’s like to lose one’s innocence without fully grasping what’s been lost, it’s him.

In many regards, despite centering around a child’s death, Barron’s Cove is about survival. Caleb’s survival through brutality and his desire to wall the resulting darkness away from his son. Prospective State Senator Lyle Chambers’ (Hamish Linklater) survival beneath generations of tradition leading him to be unable to hold that darkness at bay from spilling onto those around him. Young Ethan’s (Christian Convery) survival pushing him to unwittingly project his pain onto others without fully grasping the consequences until it’s too late. Each of these men tell lies to each other … and themselves, rewriting history to service a narrative that means nothing upon realizing they can no longer protect what they’re fighting for: Caleb’s son, Lyle’s career, and Ethan’s humanity.

So, they scramble. Caleb kidnaps Ethan to find out how his son died. Ethan tells him what he wants to hear to hold his malice at bay. And Lyle works behind the scenes to figure out how to save his poll numbers, using everything at his disposal to manufacture a truth that’s willing to embrace dark, unconscionable contingencies that might still curry favor through sympathy. Kelman orchestrates multiple hunts as result. The police and Lyle hunting Caleb. Caleb hunting Ethan and Lyle. The audience hunting threads of truth beneath lies that might hold more truth than you’d expect. Add Raúl Castillo’s Detective Navarro, an outsider untouched by the town’s corruption, as the sole objective observer willing to unravel the obviously manipulated threads, and the suspense is never lacking.

It says something too that Tramell Tillman’s small role as a throwaway plot device delivers necessary pathos to help us understand Caleb as more than what the police paint him. The same with Lang in a similarly small role meant to add grit and danger while also providing a mirror to remind us of what Caleb should have become but didn’t. Both are a testament to the performers, but also to a script that finds the capacity to provide its pawns a level of depth needed to feel lived-in and meaningful to the whole. Those two characters are especially crucial considering their contrast with each other: two military archetypes split by a chasm of compassion. Benji thinks his power made Caleb loyal, but it was really the unintended kindness from reaching out his hand to do so that made it stick.

The other relationships throughout the film build off that fact. The big one is Ethan’s fear of Lyle mimicking the rage Caleb had for this father that drove him to Benji, but there’s also Caleb’s fear of being helpless to stop his anger if Barron ever became its target. It’s why Hedlund and Convery’s dynamic is so compelling. Yes, there’s the manipulated sense of mutually assured salvation, but also proof of why Ethan resented Barron so much. And while Kelman could have simply let us know it, he goes above and beyond to ensure Caleb does it too via a final shot that may sound schmaltzy on paper, but is executed to perfection on-screen.

Those sentiments are true for the entirety of Barron’s Cove. It may often look like just another generic thriller with dark subject matter, but it always surprises by putting character and emotion above a desire to deliver hollow clichés for mainstream appeal. It’s their ability to overcome their violent natures and do the right thing that makes these men interesting, so they must remain violent for it to work. That means Kelman can’t water down the resulting impact by redeeming them to the world. His cowards remain cowards, and his criminals accept that the blood they spilled will inevitably catch up to them in the end. Some, however, might still find redemption for themselves to be at peace when it does.

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[L-R] Christian Convery “Ethan” and Garrett Hedlund as “Caleb” in the Crime, Drama, Thriller BARRON’S COVE, a Well Go USA release. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.