A director can make or break a film, we all know that, but I would argue that film noir is the one genre where the director is most vital to the success of the film. I say that because it is most often a film that can work as style over substance and when it works that style is brilliant. For me John Dahl and the Coen Brothers are the best living noir directors. Blood Simple, Kill Me Again, Red Rock West, are all modern noir works of genius. This film not so much. The sound editor should never work in film again. Mumbled lines were often made harder to hear by overly loud country western swing background music. The sound was a true mess. As far as the acting, it was uniformly strong. Casey Affleck and Elias Koteas shine above a still very solid and talented cast, but I just didn't believe any of what transpired. I think a more competent director would have overcome that problem. I know that Winterbottom was trying to juxtapose the clean cut innocent exterior of the Affleck character with the sociopathic interior, but he overdoes it. It is not an easy film to watch, and if you don't cringe at some of the goings on, I hope we never cross paths in a dark alley.
Better than "Brick" but worse than any other film noir that I can remember having seen and I have seen a lot of them. Probably my favorite genre.
