In Cold Light

Ava Bly’s semi-estranged father Will is a cowboy. She is the outlaw. Unbeknownst to her judgmental father, her brother Tom took over her drug-dealing network, after she went to prison. It is quite a dangerous business to keep in the family. For the Bly clan to survive, they must come together as a unit, but dying might be a lot easier in Maxime Giroux’s In Cold Light, which is now playing in theaters.

The freshly paroled Bly was jammed-up because of other people’s mistakes, but the people on the outside can always safely blame the people behind bars. She wants to take control again, but Tom and his crew think they have things well in hand. They don’t. That becomes evident when Bly narrowly escapes an ambush launched during a traffic stop, with the clear assistance of the police. Pivoting the crooked cops, led by Det. Bob Whyte, frame her for murder, turning her into a fugitive.

Of course, her ex-rodeo star father initially believes them instead of her. Nevertheless, Bly must protect old man Will, for the sake of their remaining family, Somehow, Bly must negotiate a truce with Claire, the drug lord calling the shots, but she is a little short on leverage.

In Cold Light is ambitiously gritty (somewhat like King Ivory also released by Saban), but Patrick Whistler’s screenplay holds no surprises. Frankly, it feels self-consciously serious and aggressively downbeat and dour. It is like Giroux and Whistler are ashamed by the film’s genre elements, so they compensated by draining out all the fun.

Still, the cast is definitely first-rate. Maika Monroe broods like classic film noir stars (including the hardnosed dudes). She and Troy Kotsur also quite convincingly look like daughter and father. Kotsur is aptly flinty and leathered as the old cowpuncher, but he has some truly poignant scenes down the stretch.

However, the biggest surprise is Helen Hunt, who is shockingly fierce portraying the dreaded Claire, in her one memorable scene. Alan Hawco also brings a lot intensity to the film, but Whyte and his fellow corrupt cops are not well-established as characters in their own right.

Monroe and Kotsur are two of the most consistently interesting thesps working in film—and their work in In Cold Light remains consistent with their previous form. However, the film is just too predictable. Worth streaming eventually, but not quite worthy of your hard-earned money, In Cold Light is now playing in New York at the AMC Empire.