Directed and co-written by David Lynch's daughter, this is an unsurprisingly dark thriller with nice touches of comedy - especially in the first part of the film. Some of the characters are nicely drawn in a Twin Peaks like way, with the use of lighting and atmosphere adding substantially to dialogue and physical acting to give a sense of the weirdness in these "everyday" people. The Twin Peaks reference (or influence on) the film is furthered, too, by a plot which sets the action in a remote part of the US where the FBI have been sent to help out the local yokel police force with investigations into a homicidal duo who've appeared on their patch.
From the start of the movie, nothing feels quite right - there's an uneasy atmosphere which is again reminiscent of Lynch Senior's work, and a number of lines and ocurrences make viewers uncomfortable. On the downside, I too quickly figured out from whence this unease stems - as did the person who was watching the film with me. But despite getting it so early on, it was worth watching, and some of the performances were pretty good. (Pullman is great, although perhaps overdoes it a little at times. The young girl, Ryan Simpkins, who plays Stephanie, performs extremely well; she's measured and compelling to watch, which is especially impressive at the age of 7 or 8! Many of the cops are fun to watch, too...)
The film is promoted as being about FBI agents attempting to get the "real story" about an incident, faced with three witnesses who have radically different stories to tell, sort of a la Rashomon. Weirdly, this is far from what the film actually is: the three witnesses's stories do differ in key ways from "the truth" (insofar as "the truth" is what we see in images that accompany and/or illustrate their words, foregrounding the dissonances between what they say and what actuall happened), but their stories do not massively from each other's versions of what happened - despite what the hype suggests. And in fact the way the film does play with those dissonances is far more interesting than a simple three-versions-of-the-same-story approach might be. It certainly allows for some genuinely comic moments (especially in respect of Bobbi (Pell James)'s recollections about her "job interview") - as well as at least one genuinely affecting moment of pathos (when we learn what truth Officer Jack Bennet (Kent Harper) is hiding).
But, disappointingly, the film goes down the all too well trodden road of - guess what - having female victims run screaming, while male victims get disposed of far more quickly, and without close-ups dwelling on their fear. This is disappointing not just because Lynch is a female writer-director from whom it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a bit more thought and originality, but also because you'd hope her father might have warned her againt it - or at least to explore rather than simply replicate such filmic norms.
As it is, even in the opening sequence before the narrative proper begins, we're treated to a man being macheted in his bed, and then a lengthy sequence in which the camera chases a blood-covered, scantily-clad woman around her bedroom, out of the house, and along a road. Lovely. Later in the film, a similar dynamic recurs - as when male victims are granted a super-speedy demise, while females are given notice of their imminent murder, and the camera shows us their terror, accordingly. Dull dull dull. And just not very nice.
Moreover, doing something different - really different - might well have made this otherwise rather run-of-the-mill thriller more engaging, more interesting, and morenoteworthy. As it is, a twist and some good acting can't really make it more than what it is - a decent thriller with nice comic touches and plenty of atmosphere, but not a whole lot more.
