Review of Dark Country (2009) by Matt R — 26 Oct 2009

I'm guessing I'm the only one that really loved this movie. Which is okay, since I'm all right with being an outsider on this one. I mean, this is a very odd movie and a good portion of your average movie goers are going to HATE it. I understand that and fully warn you out there. Keep an open mind or suffer the consequences.

"Dark Country" follows a recently married couple as they go to travel from Las Vegas to California by driving through the desert at night. They come across a wrecked car and when they decide to help the injured man they set off a series of intense events that will forever end their world.

The reason for this oddball feeling is that Tom Jane in his directorial debut, decided to make "Dark Country" in the vein of a 60s style Twilight Zone/Hitchcock thriller. In all honesty, he accomplishes this quite evenhandedly. Intense close ups, odd nightmarish angels, significant work with shadows, odd color schemes, and the instantly obvious green screen shots in the car (which is where the majority of this film actually occurs). As a big fan of those early thrillers and film noir, this shot right up my ally. The feel, the approach, the campy story, they all worked on my film love immensely. Even the acting from Tom Jane and his female cohort are in that style of over the top and melodramatic 60s work. Modern movie goers are going to probably watch it and blow a raspberry and give the screen the bird though because of this. It's definitely not a 'modern' film and doesn't play itself to be that way, although some of the dialogue is very modern...like say the f-word.

So if you are not a fan of older style film making, or film noir, and I'm not talking about all the people that claim this film to be a "Sin City" rip-off - if you knew anything about film history and style then you would know that to be bull shit and that both are modern noir films - then you are going to hate this one too. But if you keep an open mind you are going to dig this one. Oh and don't blink at the end of the film, you might miss a pertinent clue to the 'how' of its somewhat hazy ending :D.