Review of Texas Killing Fields (2011) by Gary B — 27 Apr 2012

It is partially successful to grab your attention occasionally while never actually going anywhere with it. The tone of the movie is similar to that of 'Zodiac' but never comes 1% close to what the latter achieves. A huge waste of the serious talent available. The dialogues are B-movieish, every scene is incomplete and a lot of emphasis is done on developing the characters without a thought of what they are developing them to.

Mike (Sam Worthington) and Brian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) are detectives in Clarke County who got a call from a girl who was just about to be murdered. Detective Brian gets obsessive about it. While all these killings happen in the adjoining county in the jurisdiction Detective Pam Stall (Jessica Chastain) also ex-wife of Mike requests help from Brian - conflict of interests, indecision of priority takes front seat.

It is a very confused (not confusing) script that does not know which buttons to push when and ends up not pushing anything at all. I have admired Chloe Mortez through her career and has certainly grown fond of Sam Worthington and Jessica Chastain after seeing them in 'The Debt'. Jeffrey Dean Morgan does make a very good first impression and seems to fit the role well. The trailer looked good and the name of the movie is quite intriguing. When so many things have gone positively even before completing the first scene, how could it have all gone wrong so horribly from there? I will give full credit to the writers and director. Preaches about static morality, no back story about broken relationships for us to give an informed root for, incompleteness to whatever it starts to say are few things you may find amusing in some mysterious movie - but not here. My best guess is what might have transpired in the minds of the writers may not have transpired on the screen effectively. Otherwise so much talent could not have been persuaded to be part of.

Better leave it be.