20140127: Mystery Review--The Tall Man

The Tall Man

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American/Canadian live action feature length film, 2012, rated R, crime, drama, mystery.
2. IMDB: 6.0/10.0 from 23,524 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 18.2 million USD; aspect, 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 48% on the meter; 38% liked it from 7,663 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.5/5.0 from 738,070 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by:  Pascal Laugier.
6. Starring: Jennifer Biel as Julia Denning, Jodelle Ferland as Jenny, William B. Davis as Sheriff Chestnut, Stephen McHattie as Lieutenant Dodd, Samantha Ferris as Tracy, Colleen Wheeler as Mrs. Johnson, Jakob Davies as David, Eve Harlow as Christine.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film is set in Cold Rock, a dying mining town in Washington state, in the US.


2. The opening issue is unwanted babies.  Some of the local families decide to take care of them independent of hospital stays and official paperwork.  Oi.  We're off to a sad start already, with the birth of such a baby with the help of nurse Julia in bad conditions and no other medical support.


3. Also early on the subject of abductions is raised.  There's a bulletin board of pictures and descriptions of missing children.  Then there is the legend of the Tall Man, whom some claim they have seen about the times that children had gone missing.


4. Lieutenant Dodd is on the case again, and is in the mood to bad mouth anyone who does not dress the way he does.  Julia visits Tracy, who has dispatched the baby recently born and her teenaged mother to Seattle and relatives.  At least that is what Tracy says.


5. Speech impaired Jenny claims she has seen the Dark Man.


6. Julia lives with her housekeeper Christine and her son David.  Her doctor husband passed away some years back, but provided her with a nice house and some money.  When David is abducted, the issue is raised to a much higher level for Julia.


7. Will Julia find David?  Will we find out the true cause of the kidnappings?


3. Conclusions
1. Repulsive introductory credits.  
2. There is no horror here, no supernatural elements.  It is crime, mystery, thriller.
3. One line summary: Relentlessly PC: rich people think it's OK to steal the children of the poor.
4. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10  Mostly good; could have done without the credits.


2. Sound: 6/10 OK, but not the asset it could have been.


3. Acting: 2/10 Better than a high school play, if it's a bad high school play.  Jodelle Ferland was bad.  Jessica Biel gave an uninspiring performance.  The less experienced actors were next to painful to watch.  I usually like Stephen McHattie's acting, but not in this case.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Another assertion of 'class warfare is good.'  Bad writing at its worst.  Exposition of motivations was quite weak.  The glorification of kidnapping was just bovine scatology.  With such weak/nonexistent foundations, it's even worse.