Director Lenny Abrahamson’s latest film has its roots in the notorious death of a teenager outside a Dublin nightclub, later detailed in Kevin Power’s novel “Bad Day in Blackrock.” The pensive, gray-tinged “What Richard Did” unfolds this downbeat tale in long scenes, but seldom feels slow.
Square-jawed, jockish Jack Reynor gives a title-role performance of exceptional breadth and range. (Reynor is set for the next “Transformers” installment, and although the man deserves stardom, he is light-years too good for that franchise.)
Richard, the pampered son of wealthy parents, is a rugby player about to start college. The first half establishes his good-guy credentials, as he rescues a young girl from a possible assault and acts kindly to a young, awkward teammate. Richard is so upright that when he steals the girlfriend (Roisin Murphy) of his teammate Conor (Sam Keeley), it seems like an act that will probably leave her better off.
It doesn’t work that way for long. A violent encounter outside a party leaves someone dead, and Richard’s gilded future shatters. Having meticulously built up Richard through the first half, Abramson spends the second half dismantling him. People lie for this boy, yet they despise him for it.
Richard shows a tremendous sense of guilt and grief, but the movie doesn’t suggest that those feelings confirm him as a good person. Instead, Abrahamson’s penetrating film asks — and does not answer — whether one viciously criminal moment is an aberration, or whether it reveals the weak, shabby person who was there all along.