Task ★★★★★
Brad Ingelsby’s follow-up to the celebrated Mare of Easttown, Task is a relentless crime thriller that sets an ageing FBI agent, Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo), on a collision course with a vengeful criminal, Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey). There are bloody shoot-outs, a pulse beat of violence and a milieu stocked with driven cops and a murderous motorcycle gang. But equally prominent are moments of wonder, a deep yearning for familial renewal and a solemn belief that hope remains in a horrifying world. There’s a deeply felt tenderness.
Mark Ruffalo captures FBI agent Tom Brandis’ sagging, soulful trek in Task.
This is plainly Ingelsby’s beat. The setting is once again rural Pennsylvania, although there’s less of the lived-in humour that Kate Winslet and Jean Smart shared in Mare of Easttown. That was a show from the perspective of mothers, while Task is about a pair of grieving fathers: Tom, a former Catholic priest turned FBI agent, has retreated to the bottle after a “family unit” crime, while Robbie is lashing out, robbing drug dealers to create carnivorous chaos for their biker suppliers, the Dark Hearts.
Set over little more than a week, Task has an inexorable momentum. Once one of Robbie’s armed robberies goes wrong and his humanity is challenged, choices narrow quickly. But at every step there are relationships struggling not to buckle, whether it’s Tom losing his teenage daughter Emily (Silvia Dionicio), or Robbie clashing with his defiant niece Maeve (Emilia Jones). These relationships are soaked through with joy and loss, and throughout Task, the plot’s visceral mechanics never overwhelm intimate truths. The anguish is bone-deep.
Tom Pelphrey as vengeful criminal Robbie Prendergrast in Task.
The dual protagonist set-up recalls Michael Mann’s crime classic Heat, but the counterpoint is a grasping for spiritual meaning and moments of natural reverie that echo Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. Action set-pieces unfold in verdant forests and nature feels like a salve for characters who can’t articulate what they want. It’s a hollowed-out world, complete with faltering communities and official corruption, and the visual sweep from rotating directors Jeremiah Zagar and Salli Richardson-Whitfield grasp oversized themes and gives them a granular specificity.
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The cast deliver exemplary performances. I’m not sure if there’s anyone better suited to capturing Tom’s sagging, soulful trek than Ruffalo, while Jones is a revelation as Maeve, a young woman weighed down with responsibilities and regret. Even minor characters are afforded their humanity and the story turns in unexpected ways so that writerly reaches, such as Tom talking about penance, have genuine heft. It is a masterful series, HBO’s next must-see, and more than anything it embraces love and forgiveness. Amen.
Task streams on HBO Max from September 8.
