The G
by Hope Madden
Get to know Dale Dickey. There is nobody else like her in film or TV, and what she brings to a role is grit and authenticity that can be heartbreaking or frightening. In the case of filmmaker Karl R. Hearne’s The G, it’s a bit of both.
Dickey plays Ann, known to her step-granddaughter Emma (Romane Denis, Slaxx) as The G. She smokes a lot, drinks vodka by the bottle, and has a tough time returning her invalid husband’s affection. Until a sketchy doctor tells a scheming judge the couple can’t care for themselves, and before either can change out of their PJs, their new custodian has them locked in a cheerless room with no access to the outside world.
It’s like I Care a Lot, J Blakeson’s 2020 thriller about the organized, legal business of preying on the elderly. Except The G takes place in a depressed small town where the stakes are lower and the lives considerably less glamorous. But the fantasy is still the same.
Because The G has connections and skills her new facility leadership doesn’t expect.
Dickey is, characteristically, understated, gravely perfection as the wrong granny to cross, but Hearne is not in this for comedy. This is no Thelma. The G mines a horrifying reality of disposable people for indie thrills without abandoning the tragedy at the film’s center.
A plucky Denis and the balance of the supporting cast populates this bleak town with low-rent hoods, smalltown gangsters, sleazy opportunists, and cowards. Hearne complicates the slow boiler without losing the threads or the sense of realism.
There are one or two lapses in logic, but at least as many welcome surprises. The G boasts a tight script and a director who knows how to showcase a lead. And Dickey takes advantage, from the drunken joy of Ann’s face bathed in the artificial light of a bulb she managed to change, to her pitiless growl, “He might last a day out here. Maybe less.”
Dickey’s a treasure, and one filmmakers are finally, truly recognizing. Her finest moment might have been Max Walker-Silverman’s lyrical A Love Song, but Dale Dickey delivers no matter the role.
