Sovereign Review
Members of the Sovereign Citizen Movement believe, quite literally, that the law does not apply to them. Jerry Kane (Nick Offerman) makes a living going on the road and preaching that particular gospel, sometimes alongside his teenage son Joe (Jacob Tremblay). Unsurprisingly for someone who doesn’t believe in the law, Jerry often finds himself in trouble with it. That’s what happens in Sovereign – the debut feature from Christian Swegal, based on true events – with tragic, far-reaching consequences.
The casting of Nick Offerman is this movie’s greatest coup. Offerman is still known primarily as the lovable curmudgeon Ron Swanson in much-adored sitcom Parks and Recreation, and like Ron, Jerry Kane holds a profound distrust of the federal government. But whereas Ron was a big softie at heart, with a special fondness for Pawnee’s most enthusiastic governmental worker, Leslie Knope, Jerry holds his dogma above all else. Even his own son.
Jerry’s obsession with the Sovereign Citizen Movement largely manifests as pure silliness. He’s like an overgrown child, arguing about basic nomenclature in an attempt to get out of doing his homework. To the overworked government employees he spends his time ‘debating’ with, he’s largely just an irritant – until he’s not. Offerman and writer-director Swegal do an excellent job of balancing the knife-edge of Jerry’s personality, finding both tension and nuance in his erratic nature.
Although Jerry is capable of being a warm father to Joe, it’s only for so long as Joe is in agreement with all the things that he’s trying to teach him. When Joe tries to reach for independence of thought – asking to enrol in public school, rather than continue to be homeschooled by his dad – Jerry gets angry. As Joe’s mother died several years ago, and he’s been isolated from his peers, there is no-one else for him to turn to. Sovereign is a deeply sad movie, and the saddest part about it is watching Joe’s loneliness, his thirst for another point of view that will never be quenched.
Jacob Tremblay, now 18, is almost unrecognisable as the little boy who delivered an improbably moving performance in Room a decade ago, but he’s matured into a powerful grown actor. So much of Sovereign rests on Joe’s desperate, confused face; with no-one to confide in but his dangerously erratic father, he has few chances to express his inner conflict in words. As such, Tremblay is largely charged with silently projecting his anguish, and does so to devastating effect.
There’s a secondary subplot to Sovereign, involving another father and son duo (Dennis Quaid and Thomas Mann) on the opposite side of the law. Compared to the captivatingly tense relationship between Jerry and Joe, these scenes are a lot less gripping, and are a little too obvious from a structural perspective (you’ll never guess how these father-son cops will encounter the father-son outlaws…). Nonetheless, the inevitability of their collision doesn’t make the impact any less crushing. The ripped-from-the-headlines story – a “sovereign citizen” killed two people just last month in Australia – adds a lingering horror.
★★★★
