In the Electric Mist (2009) - 3½ Stars

I thought this movie had a cool feel to it, filmed in the the bayous of New Iberia, Louisiana. The houses seemed so spread out from each other the setting alone gave the movie an uneasy eeriness. I enjoyed the movie mainly for that creepiness alone - a constant uneasiness. But other than Kelly that always had Jones back, I didn't get a sense for who anyone really was. Hard to hate the bad guys because the movie never gives depth into them to make them scary. There are also so many insignificant players to scatter your attention to rather than focused into other than Jones, no one has a between them and murder. Tommy Lee is perfect in his role as Dave but his demeanor reminded me of the sheriff he played in "No Country For Old Men.

I enjoy this type of a mysterious movie and I did enjoy Jones and Goodman working together but this detective has some very unorthodox ways of obtaining information, in comparison with his home life, and I would have liked to see where that stemmed from. Unless it was a gator or anaconda movie they were filming, I didn't get the point of the movie stars seemingly always around, getting into trouble and hanging with Det. Dave.

Dave Robicheaux is a New Orleans detective living along the bayous with his wife Bootsie (Mary Steenburgen) and daughter, Alafair (Alana Locke). A young girl Cheri LaBlanc, was brutally murdered and left along a river bank and Det. Robicheaux is trying to make sense of her senseless demise. With murder on his plate, Det. Dave has a chance encounter pulling over film stars Elrod Sykes (Peter Sarsgaard) and Rosie Gomez (Justina Machado). While driving Sykes to jail, Sykes tells Dave of a pile of bones with chains attached, he came across in the Atchafalaya Swamp. Now investigating two murders, one new and and old one he remembers from his past, the past comes back as a Confederate General helps Dave talk through his plans.

After a second girl is found dead, Det. Robicheaux learns that Cheri LaBlanc, was a known prostitute. His partner Kelly Drummond (Kelly Macdonald) and he uncover a photograph of Cheri and mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni, linking them together. But now that he's onto Balboni, his own daughter is taken hostage and Det. Robicheaux will find the tangled web goes of blame goes way farther up the chain of command to the local sheriff' (Gary Grubbs) and mayor Twinky LeMoyne (Ned Beatty).

Little Bear, Ithaca Pictures, Image Entertainment
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Writers: Marco Beltrami, Tommy Lee Jones, Jerzy Kromolowski
Producers: Michael Fitzgerald, Frederic Bourboulon

I viewed 3/09