The characters spend far too much time working through their problems with drama-deadening directness.

It's the sort of Sundance-approved movie that takes place in a stereotypically bleak rural locale, while an acoustic guitar twangs mournfully over the soundtrack.

Indie drama reveals talent in front of and behind the camera.

Vicious Kind doesn't have much in the way of new corners to offer the domestic disturbance genre, resulting in a film greatly dedicated to misery, but offers no tangible reason why anyone outside of the filmmaker should care.