Small Town Murder Songs (2011)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Walter (Peter Stormare) is a small Ontario town chief of police with a large Mennonite farming community. They find the naked body of a young woman. It's his first murder. He's trying to overcome his angry past. However the murder leads to Rita (Jill Hennessy) who provides an alibi for her boyfriend Steve (Stephen Eric McIntyre).This is a festival indie by writer/director Ed Gass-Donnelly. With Peter Stormare and those great thumping songs by Bruce Peninsula, this has the feel of a Coen movie. The story isn't that compelling. It needs to be either more twisty or more grotesque. It doesn't compare to its modern compatriots. Stormare is amazing as he usually is. He is a great character actor in need of a big time role. And the music just drives so hard that it energizes a pretty simple story. This movie is much more about this quiet character as most of his struggle is interior.

In this small town crime drama we face the protagonists demons more then we do the murderer. This film is not in everyone's taste especially with the initial set up that tricks you into thinking this is another mystery movie. The film is dripping with a spiritual thirst for redemption and while a lot of people bash the soundtrack fro being too loud and distracting i believe it hit the tone just right. If anything the music is what made the movie. With such a barren and bland setting with simple farm raised characters i think the music adds a great contrast that creates the emotion that in the viewer that the main character experiences. I will admit i was surprised and skeptical at first when i heard the soundtrack blare out of my t.v. during slow motion and seemingly meaningless scenes, but after my second and third viewing i realize that it is the scenes with the most meaning that the music plays during. This film is an amazing character study and great tale of redemption and the will to be a better person. Peter Stormare is spectacular and riveting the whole movie, though he says very little, every word seems to carry a raspy deepness. I recommend this film to everyone who would like a different kind of crime drama. 'nough said.

Well, it's happened before where I've been taken in by the promotional blurbs on a film's DVD cover. "A rare film. Cosmologically profound." was the way Variety Magazine put it. "A must-see fresh take on crime and redemption." from the Toronto Star; forgivable I guess because this is a Canadian movie. Then there's "Haunting...Totally Captivating.", which if I had read further to see that it came from the Huffington Post I might have put it down right there.With that kind of a build-up, my expectations were raised for a unique viewing experience. Unfortunately, this film with the cool title is basically your every day murder mystery that could pass in most places as a TV episode, take your pick of series. A plot element that might have had much more of an impact if it had been explored further was the character of police chief Walter (Peter Stormare), who in flash backs is shown beating on an unknown victim, but without that person's identity, there's no ability to connect the dots to the case at hand. All we know is that Walter has rage control problems and he's trying to overcome them, but in the final analysis, I didn't find that to be good enough.Oddly, with the issue I had with the story line, I was strangely fascinated by the bluesy gospel inspired sound track. It would have been better if the music didn't suddenly blare out at you as it did; I had to constantly go for the volume control to bring the level down a few notches. I don't know anything about the Mennonite community or their religion, so I can't say if the music fit the picture's sensibilities or not. But it did seem to reconcile itself with Walter's quest for personal redemption.Now I'm thinking about the ending, and I have to wonder. Was the creepy guy Steve arrested for the murder (all indications pointed to that), or for assailing Walter? You know these two had a bad history between them, but was this a case of the ends justifying the means on Walter's part? Not really clear if you think about it. And the bigger question - how does a looker like Rita get involved with a couple of characters like Walter or Steve in the first place?

The villages, small towns are the places where, far from the the alert rhythm of the big cities, people find time for themselves, for introspection, remembrance, or/and redemption. Here's such a story... OK, not a story, really, but rather something vaguely resembling. Could have been a great episode in a series following the characters in the movie and going deeper in their life and psychology. Something like Durham County, maybe? I found the movie almost by mistake, browsing in a lazy night the available HD movies on my fibe TV subscription, and seeing the TIFF stamp on the poster I placed the order instantly. My annual Andrei Tarkovsky phase, when I re-watch some of his films, was at an end, and this one was a nice step to the real world, coming from the dreamy-big-questions-and-endless-search-tarkovskyan world. I've immediately felt at home, with a familiar style and landscape, only much, much simpler. Something reminding of Fargo (1996, USA/UK), as many others saw the resemblance. With a lesser story, though.Overall, an excellent crafted, but with an 'unfinished' feel movie. Absolutely worth watching. And more than once, if one enjoys great acting and fantastic directing, regardless the unsatisfactory plot.