Review of In the Electric Mist (2009) by Anna B — 06 Feb 2015

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier (Round Midnight (1985), Life and Nothing But (1989) and The Bait (1995)), and based on the 1993 book In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke, the book was the 6th in Burke's Dave Robicheaux series, the character had been done for the screen before in Heaven's Prisoners (1995), this is a dark piece of Southern Gothic, full of damaged souls.

In Iberia Parish, Louisiana. Detective Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones) has just arrested Hollywood stars Elrod Sykes (Peter Sarsgaard) and his girlfriend Kelly Drummond (Kelly Macdonald) for drink driving.

Elrod tells Dave about a decaying body they found. Dave investigates further, and finds there are similarities to previous murders gone before. All fingers point to Mafia associate Julie "Baby Feet" Balboni (John Goodman), who claims not to know anything.

Meanwhile, Dave investigates the film production being made nearby that Elrod and Kelly are in. Dave interviews the film's producer Michael Goldman (John Sayles), who is vague with details. It's a good murder mystery, and it benefits from having a good setting in the exotic landscape of Southern Louisiana, it has a good ensemble case as well and this should have been given more recognition than it did, it went straight to DVD in America, where it was recut heavily, which is a sad shame really.