Small Town Murder Songs

Peter Stormare, Martha Plimpton

Set among the rural Mennonites this was a lean, spare policier centering on a woman's murder, a policeman with a past, gossip in a small town, redemption. Interesting use of music. Religion floats by as a motif from time to time. Deliberate pacing which at first felt too slow but eventually worked.

My main problem was the lead performance. PS was inarticulate, dogged, spent most of the movie looking at the ground, seemed to be deeply repressed...a man filled with barely controlled anger. The character did pay off at the end but it made going through the story quite frustrating.

Imaginative filmmaking (framing, editing) on a very small budget.

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