The opening scenes of Lynne Ramsay's "You Were Never Really Here" are jarring in a way that immediately throws the viewer out of balance. And the film maintains that precarious stability throughout the story. At any moment, a flood of disconnected flashes invade the screen, with no way to know that they're coming.

It is much the way PTSD flashbacks are described by soldiers after war. Which is what we have in Joe, the character played brilliantly by Joaquin Phoenix.

We learn very few things about Joe, and most of it through these flashbacks. At some point, he went to war and suffered physical and psychological trauma. But not all of his issues stem from war. Some are rooted much deeper, and are much older.

The film drops in on Joe finishing up a job. He is essentially a grittier version of Liam Neeson's dad with the particular set of skills in "Taken." Joe earns money as a mercenary, tracking down girls who have been trafficked, utilizing skills he learned during his post-war days in the FBI, and his war-earned desensitization to violence.

No one could have played Joe like Phoenix. He is cold, with limited attachments in his life. Other than caring for his aging mother, Joe has no problem letting go of connections once they are no longer helpful to him. And yet, there's some piece of him that still cares. Phoenix delicately and deftly handles Joe's fragile mental state, never overplaying it. In fact, in many ways, despite the sometimes horrific violence unfolding, he holds back. If there is any part of Joe that regrets or dislikes the brutality of his work, Phoenix doesn't show it. Which is not to suggest that he enjoys it. It's more just an aspect of the job that he accepts.

There are other characters in "You Were Never Really Here," although this story belongs completely to Phoenix and Joe. Judith Roberts plays his mother. She is old and frail, and seems to be in the beginning stages of dementia, although that is never explicitly stated. Their shared scenes are brilliant, more for the undertones and subtext than for anything happening literally. Clearly Joe is a guy who loves his mother. He takes care of her in the way that most children dread about their parents getting older. But there is resentment underneath for past wrongs and poor choices, and shared guilt over being unable to protect one another years before. Roberts doesn't have a lot of time onscreen, and most of her scenes are to help the audience understand more about Joe. But she plays it well.

The main heart of the story comes when Joe's contact, John (John Doman), connects him with Senator Votto (Alex Manette), whose daughter disappeared. The recovery goes smoothly until it doesn't, and Joe is suddenly embroiled in a conspiracy, and a fight for his own life.

The senator's daughter, Nina, is played by Ekaterina Samsonov. Like most others in the film, she doesn't see a lot of screen time. And yet, her performance is haunting. Her wide eyes somehow convey a strange combination of innocence and innocence lost.

This film burns slowly. Danger always lurks just off to the side. Lynne Ramsay wrote the script, in addition to directing. She adapted the story from the novella by Jonathan Ames, and seems to really understand the mystery that is Joe. The New York she presents is grimy and off-balance. Throughout the film Ramsay sets a tone that lets the audience know things can shift at any moment. This is helped by an unsettling score from Academy Award nominee Jonny Greenwood.

What Ramsay does best is show the world without explaining it. Too many films mistrust the audience. Ramsay doesn't do that. She parcels out little pieces of the story, then pulls back and reveals something else. It is one that is almost impossible to predict, which is refreshing in an age of cookie cutter mysteries and by-the-numbers blockbusters.

The one thing that stops me from going all the way to four stars comes toward the end. Without revealing any spoilers, there is a moment that is completely out of place and out of character from the rest of the film before it. All previous bits of surrealism were tied to memory, but this moment drops an unnecessary feeling of confusion at the end of a film that has already left the viewer a bit shell-shocked.

However, the overall artistry, and a truly inspired performance from Phoenix make this a film worth your time.

GRADE: (★★★1/2)
"You Were Never Really Here" is distributed by Amazon Studios and is in theaters now.

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