Small Town Murder Songs: Grade B

B

Small Town Murder Songs (2010)

Peter Stormare, Martha Plimpton, Stephen Eric McIntyre; Writer-Director Ed Gass-Donnelly. (Some archaic Mennonite German translated in subtitles).

In a small Mennonite town in Ontario, Canada, Walter (Stormare) is chief of police. He is old, slow-moving, slow-talking, but we get the sense he is highly experienced. A dead, naked woman is found by the lake and circumstances point to lowlife Eric (McIntyre), who lives with the chief’s ex-love-interest, Sam (Plimpton).

In brief flashbacks we get the idea that they broke up because the chief had committed some extremely violent act or acts in the past. We don’t know what they were or what the context was, but he has rejoined the church and believes his temper is now under control. But when it seems like Sam is lying to him, he goes right up to the brink of violence again. So the larger story is about the ability and the determination to change one’s character.

This Canadian film is very well acted and directed. The script is original and the cinematography stands out for its thoughtfulness. The only sour note is the dreadful sound track which I gather is authentic Mennonite church music. To my ear it was quite unpleasant, and not because it was unfamiliar. I like the unfamiliar. Rather, it sounded simplistic, droning, arrhythmic, repetitive, narrow in range and tone, and incomprehensible (in German). It did not add “atmosphere” as the Okie singing did, for example, in Brother Where Art Thou. But I guess that’s a matter of taste. Othewise, the film is well-constructed and executed, worth watching.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Grade D

D

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Michael Nyqvist, Noomie Rapace; Director Niels Arden Oplev. (Swedish, subtitled)

I have not read the international blockbuster bestseller, but that’s OK because a movie has to stand on its own two feet, but this one barely can kneel. A disgraced newspaper reporter (Nyqvist) hires out as a detective to solve a 40 year old cold case, the murder of a young childcare nanny who, as it turns out was his own caretaker. Working for a wealthy industrialist, head of a large wealthy clan of families, he sniffs around until he gets a few clues.

Meanwhile, the eponymous “Girl,” a sort of hip goth type, (Rapace) helps him out with data she has hacked, although they don’t know each other and we don’t know her motive for helping. We learn that she lives on a trust fund but must beg (and worse) for her allowance from an evil executor (who gets a grisly comeuppance at her hand eventually). She does have a fabulous dragon tattoo on her back however, for reasons unknown, but that is quite irrelevant to the story. Her little drama with the fund administrator has nothing to do with the decades-old murder mystery, but it is actually the interesting part of the movie.

The murder mystery rambles on and on with various twists and turns, all of which seem manufactured and not integral to the plot. The “evidence,” such as it is, is mostly pictures of pictures: photographs, newspapers, and computer screens, all of which we see repeatedly, in case we are losing the thread of the story, which is easy to do. That is poor directing, poor basic storytelling even, but consistent with the equally weak technique of telling the audience the story with line after line of endless dialog instead of showing the story by having characters react to conflict. You really have to be a fast reader and can hardly take your eyes off the subtitles to watch the movie, because the whole screenplay is so incredibly wordy.

In the end, the bad guy is caught and his/her motive is utterly lame, but that is consistent with the quality of the rest of the screenplay. Some fairly good acting, especially by Rapace, redeems the film from complete failure.

Lone Star: Grade B

B
Lone Star (1996)

Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, Kris Kristofferson, Matthew McConaughey, Ron Canada; Writer-Director John Sayles.

It’s not a western, although it is set in a small Texas border town and the major players wear cowboy hats and guns strapped to their hip. Deeds (Cooper) is the town’s sheriff, the third in a line of bigger-than-life figures to hold that office. His father was a legendary sheriff in the 1950's who succeeded the evil Charlie Wade (Kristofferson), a corrupt racist who stole thousands from the town pension fund and absconded without a trace. But when a skeleton with a sheriff’s star is dug up in the desert, Deeds wonders who it was. As he unravels the mystery, he learns more about who his father was, and who he is. There are several compelling subplots that run parallel to that main theme. I saw the surprise ending coming, but even so, it was interesting and reasonable.

About the only thing wrong with this movie is its 2:15 length, which is due to a slow pace and perhaps too many subplots. Sayles’ writing and directing make the characters rounded and believable, except Kristofferson’s. That character, who shoots Mexicans and blacks on sight if they do not pay extortion, is over the top. He stands as an unrealistic personification of evil that the other characters can work against. However, sets and cinematography are perfect. Costumes are excellent. But the characterizations are the best part.

Cooper’s performance in particular creates a genuine character, with spot on accent and speech timing, but he was a bit too taciturn, too remote to be fully engaging. I like a little more personality in my brooding sheriffs. Tommy Lee Jones captured the character in Electric Mist (2009), which may have been an attempt at a remake, although it was a terrible movie. It’s not so easy to imitate John Sayles. His artistry makes this film a completely engrossing experience.

Tell No One: Grade C

C
Tell No One (2006)
François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze ;Co-writer and director Guillaume Canet. (French, subtitled).

The first half of the movie is a good mystery/thriller. (A mystery is where the crime has occurred and the only question is whodunit. In a thriller, you don’t even know what is going on until later.) A pediatrician (Cluzet) and his wife (Croze) are at their summer cabin when she is kidnapped. (There is a rash of recent movies where the husband is on a swimming dock while the wife is on shore when something bad happens. Who voted for that device ?). Eight years later, the Dr. receives mysterious emails and a video clip that appear to be from his wife. Could she still be alive? He begins to investigate the history of the incident and as he does, clues slowly dribble out to us, but then the police get interested and he is the prime suspect in his wife’s demise. They don’t believe she is alive because the body was identified by the father. But then the movie goes south. The Dr. flees the police, his path hidden by a layer of red herrings. Also, many of the women looked similar and were hard to discriminate. The story became so arbitrary that the nominal surprise ending was anticlimactic. Good acting, poor screenplay.

In The Electric Mist: Grade D

D
In the Electric Mist (2009)
Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard, Mary Steenburgern, Ned Beatty, Buddy Guy. Director Bertrand Tavernier.

No movie with Tommy Lee Jones should be missed, but this one could be lower on the priority list. He is a detective in contemporary Louisiana bayou country, a perfect, steamy, location for a murder mystery. Locations, sets, costumes, and characterizations are all excellent, giving a palpable sense of place. But that’s the strongest feature of the movie. A serial killer is in the area, and so is evil mob boss Goodman, who is making a movie in town. Tommy Lee struts about asking questions and threatening people but does not follow police procedures in any detail. The mystery does not unravel. It just stays where it was at the start. A murder case from 40 years ago is also reopened, and it is unclear if it is related to the serial killer, who is never caught anyway, so who cares. A bad cop is shot as an apparent evildoer and Ned Beatty confesses to something, but the ending is chaos. There is a nice bit where a drugged TLJ talks to a hallucinated Confederate general, but there was no point to it. There are some tantalizing moments of fabulous blues from Buddy Guy, but inexplicably, the filmmakers mostly opted for cliche orchestration that cheapened whatever artistic merit the film has. What a blockhead decision that was. Good acting is evident from all the stars, but in the absence of a credible screenplay there is no way this movie had a chance.

The Walker: Grade B

B
The Walker (2007)
Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty, Lily Tomlin, Willem Dafoe. Writer-director Paul Schrader.

Harrelson is a gay Washington, DC escort and gossip-monger for ageing rich women and wives of the powerful (e.g., Bacall, Tomlin, Thomas). He plays canasta with them in the afternoons and takes them to the opera in the evenings. They accept him into their circle like a useful mascot. When one of the women’s secret lovers is found murdered, the walker calls it in to shield her from publicity, but soon he is the prime suspect. He keeps the secret even when he quickly becomes a social pariah. His "ladies" won't see him any more. He breaks up with his boyfriend in a crisis of self-loathing. I’m not even sure who committed the murder, possibly Ned Beatty? Disconnected talk about a senate scandal hearing went by too quickly. The story is really about Harrelson’s character, although it would have been a better movie if it had taken the whodunit angle more seriously.

This is Harrelson’s show. He is always a strong actor, but often as a supporting character. Here he demonstrates that he has the chops to carry the whole film. It is such a great performance, he is almost unrecognizable as the same guy who was in No Country for Old Men and Trans Siberian. Schrader’s writing and direction highlight Harrelson’s talent. The walker’s character resolution in the end is weak, as he simply announces his motive for keeping the secret. It is believable, but that motivation was not well-demonstrated in the action, so we just have to accept him at his word. The strong part of the movie is the characterization of the walker and Harrelson’s conveyance of it.

In the Valley of Elah: Grade A

A
In the Valley of Elah
Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon; Writer-Director Paul Haggis.

When you send 18 year old children into a war, you should not be surprised if they come back intellectually and morally confused. Amputees get our sympathy, but the subtle wounds to the soul are at least as tragic. It’s a tale told before, but one that bears repeating. Coming Home told the same story about a Vietnam vet, as did many others. Here it is a soldier recently back from Iraq who has gone missing and his parents (Jones and Sarandon) search for him. Jones is a retired sheriff who doggedly pursues the clues to find his son. Theron is a local detective who rebuffs his amateur help at first but eventually comes to trust him and sympathize. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that the son is dead, because the core of the story is the whodunit, with good suspense maintained as the clues slowly accumulate. Acting from Sarandon, although brief, is superior. Jones plays his usual stiff-backed, taciturn but ironic self, and Theron is adequate although disappointingly restrained. She really is much better than what we see here. The music was good, from a full orchestra, but unnecessary, adding nothing. Sets and costumes are unremarkable. The movie’s virtues are that it is an engaging murder mystery, very well told, with a strong social message.

Slow Burn: Grade D

D

Slow Burn (2005)

Ray Liotta, LL Cool J, Taye Diggs, Jolene Blalock. Writer & Director Wayne Beach

The DA (Liotta with too much hair) hunts for a mysterious gangleader nobody has actually seen. As in The Usual Suspects, Roshomonic stories are told in flashback until he is revealed. Blalock, the assistant DA, plays the evasive interviewee created by Kevin Spacey, although in this heavy handed script the revelation of the bad guy is arbitrary and uninteresting. There is a mild racial theme since Blalock is supposed to be a black woman who passes for white but that has no real bearing on the story. These are good actors but bad directing sucks the energy out of them. I know Liotta is capable of much more than slack jaw surprise, so why mug that shot repeatedly? It is no mystery that the wordy and lifeless dialog comes from that same director.

The Dead Girl: Grade A

A

The Dead Girl

Toni Collette, Piper Laurie, Giovanni Ribisi, Rose Byrn, Mary Steenburgen, Marcia Gay Harden, Mary Beth Hurt, Kerry Washington. Writer-Director: Karen Moncrieff

A dead girl is found in a pasture. Five scenarios ensue showing the ripple effects into other people’s lives. All feature some kind of sub-psychotic mental disorder: clinical depression, substance abuse, psychopathy, and various severe personality disorders. It is interesting that on the DVD extras, the interviewed actors “explain” their characters as being tested by hard life and tough breaks but nobody, including the director, mentions mental abnormality. It’s hard to believe that is such a blind spot. Without that theme, there would be no movie because healthy people do not act like this. But as a writer/director’s gimmick, it justifies surreal acting. Kerry Washington as a hooker is astonishing. Newcomer Rose Byrne is completely absorbing. Toni Collette is so good she gives you the creeps. Marcia Gay is wonderful. Photography and directing are outstanding, especially a favorite fixed camera shot into one room from another room. I don’t know how the depth of field is controlled on those. Moncrieff has done mostly TV shows and that probably accounts for the episodic nature of the story, but the overall theme does unfold in an organic way. Only the mistaken identity of the girl in the morgue rings a false note. If you love good acting, this is the one.