Thomas Jane and Lauren German play a couple of honeymooners driving through the Nevada desert at night when they come across a severely injured man lying in the middle of the road. The couple take him to their car and attempt to drive him to the nearest hospital. As they drive, the man slowly starts to regain consciousness and begins to babble, before becoming violently threatening towards the couple, and things only get weirder from there. The ubiquitous Ron Perlman plays the intimidating local sheriff.
This directorial debut by star Thomas Jane is certainly a vanity project, but it does have its merits. Although a bit pretentious, Jane and cinematographer Geoff Boyle (“Mutant Chronicles”, starring Thomas Jane and Ron Perlman, oddly enough) give this film a terrific (if clearly green screen) look, reminiscent of “Sin City”. It’s certainly a very pretty, visually striking film, and not exactly annoying in that regard, like some can be. For instance, when a film is set around dusk, usually it looks rather ugly and murky. Jane and Boyle make it look interesting, if arty. There’s plenty of Film Geek-inspired camera angles and the lighting in the early part of the film suggests that either Jane or Boyle happen to be a big fan of “Double Indemnity”. For a film presumably shot with HD cameras, it doesn’t look too murky or dull at all. Meanwhile, the way Jane and Boyle shoot things outside of the car window, suggests something totally otherworldly, which I liked. Credit where it’s due, Boyle also knows how to light things so that you can see the actors perfectly fine in the car (where most of the film takes place), whilst keeping everything outside eerily dark. It’s very effectively done, as I kept expecting something to suddenly pop up at the windshield. Jane and Boyle deserve credit for handling shadow and light effectively and making sure we never see the same kind of shot too often. I particularly liked those awesome shots of moonlight through trees. I’m not sure I needed all that awful fake lightning, though.
Unfortunately, it ends up being a look in search of a movie (not surprisingly it’s based on a graphic novel), as Jane takes us practically nowhere at a glacial pace. It seems like a short film idea stretched to feature length, as there is not nearly enough going on in the Tab Murphy (Disney’s “Tarzan”) script to make the distance. It would make a terrific “Twilight Zone” episode, though.
The constant whispering and mumbling of the two leads doesn’t help, I must say. They spend most of the film in a car together, so why in the hell are they whispering to each other? It makes it hard to hear anything they say. Furthermore, as attractive as the film may be, the projection shots (especially in the “Sin City”-inspired close-ups) look extremely fake, which might bother some people. Perhaps the fact that it is shot in colour whereas “Sin City” was mostly B&W, has something to do with that difference in quality, but I’ve also heard Jane (whose ambition might’ve outweighed his talents and funds) originally wanted this shown in theatres in 3D, which would also explain things. Still, so far as this kind of ‘visually striking, dramatically empty’ thing goes, this one’s certainly better than “The Spirit”. Story-wise it has a bit of Stephen King or Clive Barker about it, but we’re still talking about a short story.
Certainly, some of it is funny, in a dark, Clive Barker kind of way, as Jane tries to dig some dirt and ends up kicking it into poor German’s face. There’s also an hilarious bit where Jane looks at a rest stop map with a ‘You are Here’ marker and…there’s absolutely nothing anywhere near it, because he’s in the middle of nowhere! I picked the twist, but it isn’t terribly obvious and it’s still interesting anyway. Meanwhile, Ron Perlman has a nifty small role where you’re never sure if he’s friend or foe, and the actor makes the most out of the small time on screen that he can.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Whilst nowhere near as bad as I’d heard, it’s extremely uneven, if visually striking nonetheless. It’s all a bit thin and underdone, but it’s not ridiculous to suggest that Jane might have a career behind the camera if his choice of material improves.
