John Moon, played by Sam Rockwell, accidentally shoots and kills a beautiful young girl while hunting for deer. In a state of shock, John drags the body down to an old abandoned gravel pit where he finds the girl has been living like a runaway. Inside her makeshift shelter, he goes through her belongings and finds a large sum of money. He hides the body, takes the money and leaves. It doesn't take long before it is made clear that the hunter is being hunted as somebody wants their money back.
Though the story sounds unoriginal, like something the Coen Brother's already perfected with No Country For Old Men, A Single Shot takes a different approach. This is a psychological thriller through John's eyes. His guilt plays a factor and instead of running off with the money, John sticks around his small rural town and begins to investigate. The screenplay is adapted by the writer of the novel, Matthew F. Jones, and for an unoriginal premise, the story takes it's own unique path.
David M. Rosenthal is very hit and miss in his direction. While the exterior scenes are both beautiful and haunting, the interior scenes are irritatingly tight, causing an unnecessary claustrophobic effect. While it could be said the interior scenes are shot in a way to add to the chaos surrounding the protagonist, they really just come off cheap and vague. We're missing a need for details of these interior locations. It's not a matter of the low-budget, it is just that the scenes are terribly framed.
The only other aspect of the film that will turn people away are the heavy accents. This isn't a flaw but it will annoy the average viewer because it is almost impossible to understand some of the dialogue in certain scenes. Turning up the volume doesn't help either, these scenes may need to be subtitled. It leaves a curious question: Were the actors directed to deliver their dialogue in a way so the average audience member wouldn't be able to understand what they are saying or were the actors having fun going to the extreme with their backwoods redneck characters?
Though aspects of the direction come off as amateurish, A Single Shot delivers a tense story and a perfect cathartic ending.
Though the story sounds unoriginal, like something the Coen Brother's already perfected with No Country For Old Men, A Single Shot takes a different approach. This is a psychological thriller through John's eyes. His guilt plays a factor and instead of running off with the money, John sticks around his small rural town and begins to investigate. The screenplay is adapted by the writer of the novel, Matthew F. Jones, and for an unoriginal premise, the story takes it's own unique path.
David M. Rosenthal is very hit and miss in his direction. While the exterior scenes are both beautiful and haunting, the interior scenes are irritatingly tight, causing an unnecessary claustrophobic effect. While it could be said the interior scenes are shot in a way to add to the chaos surrounding the protagonist, they really just come off cheap and vague. We're missing a need for details of these interior locations. It's not a matter of the low-budget, it is just that the scenes are terribly framed.
The only other aspect of the film that will turn people away are the heavy accents. This isn't a flaw but it will annoy the average viewer because it is almost impossible to understand some of the dialogue in certain scenes. Turning up the volume doesn't help either, these scenes may need to be subtitled. It leaves a curious question: Were the actors directed to deliver their dialogue in a way so the average audience member wouldn't be able to understand what they are saying or were the actors having fun going to the extreme with their backwoods redneck characters?
Though aspects of the direction come off as amateurish, A Single Shot delivers a tense story and a perfect cathartic ending.