With rare exceptions small towns in American cinema are between two extremes. Either they are the ideal place, a shelter against the corruption of the big city or they're these stifling places of conformity where people want to bust loose as soon as possible. In It's A Wonderful Life George Bailey finds it first one way then the other. But in Cut Bank both the title of the film and the town where all the characters live it's most definitely the latter at least that's what Liam Hemsworth finds.
But he's got obligations and a girl he loves in Teresa Palmer daughter of Billy Bob Thornton the richest guy in town. Hemsworth one fine day gets lucky, as he's videoing Palmer for a local beauty pageant in a field he happens to tape David Burke a very silent and stoic Blackfoot Indian shoot mailman Bruce Dern and then take off with the mail truck.
Too good to be true. Clues to solving a federal crime involving the mails is payable by Uncle Sam's post office with a six figure reward. And postal official Oliver Platt is here to pay off. But when things are too good to be true they generally are. Then some bodies start piling up and a local eccentric played by Michael Stuhlbarg starts on a hunt for a missing parcel that was supposed to be delivered in the mail by Dern.
Just like Fargo, another small town setting with a crime spree that originates with a plan dreamed up by an amateur and carried out by idiots.
Cut Bank, Montana is certainly not Bedford Falls. It's more like the film Fargo. In fact there's one very definite parallel, the relationship between Hemsworth and Thornton is almost a duplicate of the one that amateur master criminal William H. Macy has with his father-in-law Harve Presnell. Presnell and Thornton treat the son-in- law and prospective son-in-law like manure which is half the problem.
Sheriff John Malkovich whose sleepy little Montana town has never recorded a murder is soon awash in bodies. But when the truth comes out there's a surprise ending I guarantee you won't see coming especially if you think this is a Fargo clone.
The cast ensemble delivers good performances but if I had to pick one out it would be Stuhlbarg. His town eccentric hermit is underplayed and frightening at the same time, a difficult thing to pull off.
Cut Bank, Montana a town with an unexpected crime wave.
But he's got obligations and a girl he loves in Teresa Palmer daughter of Billy Bob Thornton the richest guy in town. Hemsworth one fine day gets lucky, as he's videoing Palmer for a local beauty pageant in a field he happens to tape David Burke a very silent and stoic Blackfoot Indian shoot mailman Bruce Dern and then take off with the mail truck.
Too good to be true. Clues to solving a federal crime involving the mails is payable by Uncle Sam's post office with a six figure reward. And postal official Oliver Platt is here to pay off. But when things are too good to be true they generally are. Then some bodies start piling up and a local eccentric played by Michael Stuhlbarg starts on a hunt for a missing parcel that was supposed to be delivered in the mail by Dern.
Just like Fargo, another small town setting with a crime spree that originates with a plan dreamed up by an amateur and carried out by idiots.
Cut Bank, Montana is certainly not Bedford Falls. It's more like the film Fargo. In fact there's one very definite parallel, the relationship between Hemsworth and Thornton is almost a duplicate of the one that amateur master criminal William H. Macy has with his father-in-law Harve Presnell. Presnell and Thornton treat the son-in- law and prospective son-in-law like manure which is half the problem.
Sheriff John Malkovich whose sleepy little Montana town has never recorded a murder is soon awash in bodies. But when the truth comes out there's a surprise ending I guarantee you won't see coming especially if you think this is a Fargo clone.
The cast ensemble delivers good performances but if I had to pick one out it would be Stuhlbarg. His town eccentric hermit is underplayed and frightening at the same time, a difficult thing to pull off.
Cut Bank, Montana a town with an unexpected crime wave.