The good stuff: excellent cast, fabulous moody cinematography, and good suspense.
The not-so-good stuff: most of the cast don't get to do much, the anachronisms, and the suspense being largely generated by the very, very slow pace.
I'm a big fan of both Robert Patrick and Lance Henriksen, and I was thrilled at the chance to see these two actors together. Unfortunately, there's just one scene with the two of them. Since this film is a lot closer to portraying "real life", the performances are appropriately understated. It was obvious that bad things were going to happen, but it was impossible to say just how and when it would all play out, even right up to the end.
Among the things that irked me was that some of the other excellent actors didn't get much screen time or their characters were basically along for the ride (literally for Christian Kane). Robert England made the most of his limited role, though, and I found him to be the creepiest of the pack of baddies. As much as the visuals were done well, I'd have liked less time devoted to landscape and more time devoted to character development and interaction.
I found the Deputy Doug character to be poorly written and thus irritating to no end, despite a strong effort by Joe Flanigan. While I get that as a rural deputy he doesn't see a lot of action, he seems to forget whatever police training he's had. I was literally yelling "Call for backup!" several times while watching this at home on DVD. You can tell he knows things aren't right on several occasions, but he doesn't do anything about it. You see the conflict on his face, but he takes no action. He only seems to remember he's a law enforcement officer near the end when he's ready to take on the protagonist, because he remembers him from a photo, taken 15 years earlier, from a newspaper article on microfiche. (Yes, microfiche. Apparently only the teen daughter has any connection to modern society with her laptop.) But before that, he does nothing about the four bad guys with police records, who he had already pulled over once and let go, and who have his friends Rose and Hec obviously nervous when he picks up dinner at the diner. Instead, he drives off and then takes an exceedingly long time to even look in his take-out and see that his order is purposely wrong. Was the Doug character meant to be stupid or a coward? Or both? His actions or lack thereof have no consistent logic, so it's hard to tell.
On the whole, it's a decent film and worth a look, but save it for a day when you can handle the dreary atmosphere and the extremely slow pace. And I dare you to not notice the rotary phone.
The not-so-good stuff: most of the cast don't get to do much, the anachronisms, and the suspense being largely generated by the very, very slow pace.
I'm a big fan of both Robert Patrick and Lance Henriksen, and I was thrilled at the chance to see these two actors together. Unfortunately, there's just one scene with the two of them. Since this film is a lot closer to portraying "real life", the performances are appropriately understated. It was obvious that bad things were going to happen, but it was impossible to say just how and when it would all play out, even right up to the end.
Among the things that irked me was that some of the other excellent actors didn't get much screen time or their characters were basically along for the ride (literally for Christian Kane). Robert England made the most of his limited role, though, and I found him to be the creepiest of the pack of baddies. As much as the visuals were done well, I'd have liked less time devoted to landscape and more time devoted to character development and interaction.
I found the Deputy Doug character to be poorly written and thus irritating to no end, despite a strong effort by Joe Flanigan. While I get that as a rural deputy he doesn't see a lot of action, he seems to forget whatever police training he's had. I was literally yelling "Call for backup!" several times while watching this at home on DVD. You can tell he knows things aren't right on several occasions, but he doesn't do anything about it. You see the conflict on his face, but he takes no action. He only seems to remember he's a law enforcement officer near the end when he's ready to take on the protagonist, because he remembers him from a photo, taken 15 years earlier, from a newspaper article on microfiche. (Yes, microfiche. Apparently only the teen daughter has any connection to modern society with her laptop.) But before that, he does nothing about the four bad guys with police records, who he had already pulled over once and let go, and who have his friends Rose and Hec obviously nervous when he picks up dinner at the diner. Instead, he drives off and then takes an exceedingly long time to even look in his take-out and see that his order is purposely wrong. Was the Doug character meant to be stupid or a coward? Or both? His actions or lack thereof have no consistent logic, so it's hard to tell.
On the whole, it's a decent film and worth a look, but save it for a day when you can handle the dreary atmosphere and the extremely slow pace. And I dare you to not notice the rotary phone.
