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In the Electric Mist
Not
even Tommy Lee Jones can save In the Electric Mist from
mediocrity and although I desperately tried to like this film, I was
lost in its convoluted plot and even fell asleep once, causing me to
re-watch the entire movie just to know what was happening. Damn it!
The story
revolves around an ageing Louisiana detective called Dave Robicheaux who
unfortunately has trouble with alcohol and spends too much of his time
investigating, rather than spending it with his wife and adopted child.
When a Hollywood company sets up camp in his town much to Robicheaux’s
disgust, one of the actors (Peter Sarsgaard) discovers the remains of a
man who was killed over 40 years.
This case may also be linked to his
current investigation that sees a number of prostitutes murdered and the
leads are pointing to Baby Feet Balboni (John Goodman), a
former friend of Dave and the person funding this Hollywood production.
As Robicheaux investigates both cases, he soon has visions of
Confederate Soldiers that is quite reminiscent of Twin Peaks who assist
him in pointing him in the right direction but leaves the
question to the viewer, whether our hero is actually going insane.
The
biggest problem with In the Electric Mist is that the characters and the
plots seemed mashed together with no real links or substance. This in
turn makes the entire story quite disjointed and when you’re hoping that
the story will move onto the main plot, another subplot or character is
introduced to make the movie a turmoil of confusion. One highlight of
the movie is Tommy Lee Jones who successfully manages to portray his
character well, it’s just a shame that the story does not back him up
because everything was there for a great movie but conception failed.
The video quality looks good on DVD and the colours suits the
cinematography of Louisiana with some artifacting in the darker scenes.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is clean and crisp but unfortunately this is
one of those movies that needs to be turned up because it seems that the
audio levels of the actors is a little low.
At the end of the day,
In the Electric Mist could have been
an interesting thriller, however the excessive subplots and
inconsistencies of the story make the movie quite disappointing.
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