Review of In the Electric Mist (2009) by Craig T — 15 Mar 2011

Despite this film never securing a US theatrical release, I wanted to see what kind of surprises it may be hiding. Bertrand Tavernier directs Tommy Lee Jones and John Goodman in a deep south tale of murder and corruption. This is one of those films where one can find a hidden little gem or see why there was no theatrical release and move on. I have never seen any of Tavernier's film so I have nothing to compare or contrast, a clean slate.

Jones stars as a recovering alcoholic lawman in the deep south. Goodman plays a gangster type who is now involved in movie production. Worlds collide when a young woman is found murdered and Jones takes the case to heart. In the heart of it all, a movie is being shot in the same town as the murders. Two actors from the movie are perhaps loosely involved somehow and are played by Peter Sarsgaard and Kelly Macdonald. In a random point, apparently Jones witnessed a murder decades ago and even this event gets mixed up in an already confusing plot. Basically unknown women get murdered, killers are never clearly revealed if at all, and it is a complete mess of a script with the characters acting as confused as we are. Clarity slips away minute by minute as it almost becomes humorous. Jones has a few moments of promise that kept me hoping but that is about the extent of praises I can muster. Near the end I began to wonder what was on tv or if I had anything I needed to get done before work in the morning. I literally almost turned this film off when Jones began speaking to the old civil war veteran he hallucinated. Come on, people...

(Sigh) Motives are unclear, characters are just awful, and no one is likeable. Such wasted talent! Oscar winners as well as brilliant supporting faces! Sarsgaard is completely unbelievable as he forces himself to stumble around drunk. Goodman slobs about- and is supposed to be a ruthless gangster? Not from what I saw. I really wanted to like Jones in this role as it seemed a bit similar to his role in No Country for Old Men (at first glance). Yet underdevelopment and pitiful dialog kept even his talents at bay. Turns out that at least somebody felt the way I do about this appalling mess and it is clear why somebody kept this out of theatres. I'm disappointed in the people behind this and can't blame Jones, MacDonald, or most of the talented cast. A potential story could have been born here but this film was doomed from day one. Decent dialog would have been necessary and better character development would have been a necessity in order to even get this mess off the ground. My clean slate with director Bertrand Tavernier just got mangled. (F).