"IN THE ELECTRIC MIST"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: * (out of 5 stars) STARRING Tommy Lee Jones as DAVE ROBICHEAUX John Goodman as JULIE “BABY FEET” BALBONI Peter Sarsgaard as ELROD SYKES Kelly MacDonald as KELLY DRUMMOND Mary Steenburgen as BOOTSIE ROBICHEAUX Justina Machado as ROSIE GOMEZ Rated R Studio: Image Entertainment Directed by: Bertrand Tavernier Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones) is a lawman in the Louisiana bayou post-Katrina. When a grisly string of murders start to show up in the town, Dave connects them to local mobster Julie “Baby Feet” Balboni (John Goodman) and suspects a link to a decades-old murder of a fugitive.
WHAT I LIKED
I’ll admit that even though the casting of Tommy Lee Jones as a lawman in a small town trying to solve a murder has been done many times before (and sometimes better in films like “No Country for Old Men”), I still enjoy watching him play the part. There’s something grandfatherly about Jones, and he exudes a comfort zone around him, raising the quality of everyone around him.
While the movie takes place in Louisiana and has many connections to the local blues scene, this love of music didn’t bog down the story but rather added to it. It’s a complex web of story in this film, but hardly hard to follow. The movie captured many aspects to modern-day Louisiana, including life after Katrina, the criminal element and the small town feel of a place like New Orleans and its surrounding communities.
For a small-budgeted crime thriller, I was impressed with how the film kept a fresh feel to it and didn’t fall into the groove of exploitation that other thrillers seem to so easily achieve. There’s an interesting side-story about a film production coming to town, which shows how Baby Feet Balboni has his hands in all things financial, and both Peter Sarsgaard and Kelly MacDonald fill out their characters well as people associated with the film that help Robicheaux with his investigation.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
There were elements of the film that disconnect with itself, mainly the connection between the decades-old murder and the modern day serial killings. “In the Electric Mist” is based on a book, so I imagine this connection is more fully explored in the written work. Such is often the case with book adaptations.
DVD FEATURES
Sadly, there are no DVD bonus features to enhance this otherwise excellent film.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Fans of the book and anyone who likes to see Tommy Lee Jones solve a murder.
