The insanely versatile and always authentic Dale Dickey is an actress who can express more in one stare than many can with heavy direction and pages of dialogue. She has always been a captivating screen presence, often playing gritty and menacing characters while at other times conveying an unvarnished Southern charm. Her performances are often subtle yet they’re almost always memorable.

Dickey gets a terrific lead role in “The G”, a gripping crime thriller from Canadian writer-director Karl R. Hearne. The film premiered two years ago at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and since then has been making its rounds across the globe. Now it’s getting a wide distribution courtesy of Dark Sky Films, hopefully followed by the kind of audience the movie deserves.

Dickey plays Ann Hunter, a leathery and tough-minded 72-year-old who spends too much of her day smoking cigarettes and swigging vodka. She has no family outside of her ailing husband Chip (Greg Ellwand) and his granddaughter from his first marriage, Emma (Romane Denis). Emma admires Ann and the two have gotten close. But Ann has a dark past that she has kept hidden from Emma. And she’s forced back into that past after a vile chain of events threatens those closest to her.

Everything turns when a group of men arrive at their home with a court order to move Ann and Chip to a care facility. The court puts them under the care of a man named Rivera (Bruce Ramsay). As their legal guardian, Rivera immediately gets control of their assets. It goes something like this – the “guardians” target isolated elderly people who they believe may have money. They then get diagnoses from corrupt doctors who say the patients are incapable of caring for themselves. It then goes before the courts where judges give the “guardians” control.

But Ann is no normal target and she’s certainly not the helpless old woman they assume she is. Rivera and his cronies find it out once Emma is put in danger while trying to help her grandparents. The gritty Ann turns grittier and Dickey captures it with striking authenticity. Her quiet stoicism turns menacing as she slowly peels back some of her character’s layers. But the best quality of her performance is in how Dickey is able to have us rooting for Ann and fearing her at the same time.

While it may sound as if “The G” turns into a prototypical violent payback thriller, the film actually has much more going on than that. Hearse takes his time developing his story. Much more of a slow-burn than an edge-of-your-seat nailbiter, the story earns our investment and rewards our patience. It does so on the back of the fearless and formidable Dale Dickey, who remains an actress deserving of more recognition than she gets. “The G” releases June 27th in theaters and on VOD.

VERDICT – 4 STARS