Well, it's happened before where I've been taken in by the promotional blurbs on a film's DVD cover. "A rare film. Cosmologically profound." was the way Variety Magazine put it. "A must-see fresh take on crime and redemption." from the Toronto Star; forgivable I guess because this is a Canadian movie. Then there's "Haunting...Totally Captivating.", which if I had read further to see that it came from the Huffington Post I might have put it down right there.
With that kind of a build-up, my expectations were raised for a unique viewing experience. Unfortunately, this film with the cool title is basically your every day murder mystery that could pass in most places as a TV episode, take your pick of series. A plot element that might have had much more of an impact if it had been explored further was the character of police chief Walter (Peter Stormare), who in flash backs is shown beating on an unknown victim, but without that person's identity, there's no ability to connect the dots to the case at hand. All we know is that Walter has rage control problems and he's trying to overcome them, but in the final analysis, I didn't find that to be good enough.
Oddly, with the issue I had with the story line, I was strangely fascinated by the bluesy gospel inspired sound track. It would have been better if the music didn't suddenly blare out at you as it did; I had to constantly go for the volume control to bring the level down a few notches. I don't know anything about the Mennonite community or their religion, so I can't say if the music fit the picture's sensibilities or not. But it did seem to reconcile itself with Walter's quest for personal redemption.
Now I'm thinking about the ending, and I have to wonder. Was the creepy guy Steve arrested for the murder (all indications pointed to that), or for assailing Walter? You know these two had a bad history between them, but was this a case of the ends justifying the means on Walter's part? Not really clear if you think about it. And the bigger question - how does a looker like Rita get involved with a couple of characters like Walter or Steve in the first place?
With that kind of a build-up, my expectations were raised for a unique viewing experience. Unfortunately, this film with the cool title is basically your every day murder mystery that could pass in most places as a TV episode, take your pick of series. A plot element that might have had much more of an impact if it had been explored further was the character of police chief Walter (Peter Stormare), who in flash backs is shown beating on an unknown victim, but without that person's identity, there's no ability to connect the dots to the case at hand. All we know is that Walter has rage control problems and he's trying to overcome them, but in the final analysis, I didn't find that to be good enough.
Oddly, with the issue I had with the story line, I was strangely fascinated by the bluesy gospel inspired sound track. It would have been better if the music didn't suddenly blare out at you as it did; I had to constantly go for the volume control to bring the level down a few notches. I don't know anything about the Mennonite community or their religion, so I can't say if the music fit the picture's sensibilities or not. But it did seem to reconcile itself with Walter's quest for personal redemption.
Now I'm thinking about the ending, and I have to wonder. Was the creepy guy Steve arrested for the murder (all indications pointed to that), or for assailing Walter? You know these two had a bad history between them, but was this a case of the ends justifying the means on Walter's part? Not really clear if you think about it. And the bigger question - how does a looker like Rita get involved with a couple of characters like Walter or Steve in the first place?