Donnie
Devlin should have an advantage when it comes to sleuthing out people’s dirt.
He is a garbage man. However, he does not inspire much confidence when it comes
to deductive reasoning. You can use the politically correct euphemism of your
choice, but he is who he is. Yet, for some reason, Devlin becomes obsessed with
the death of a young boy in Simon Fellows’ A
Dark Place, which opens today in LA and Chicago.
People
make fun of Devlin all the time, but his daughter Wendy loves him, despite
being an awkward tweener. Their mutual affection for the Steelers and the
Penguins definitely helps. He still harbors romantic delusions regarding Wendy’s
mom, Linda, who bitterly resents her fateful drunken hook-up with Devlin.
Frankly, that is why it is so hard to buy into Devlin’s all-consuming interest
in the premature death of a little boy on his route.
Nevertheless,
Devlin becomes convinced there is something fishy about the lad’s drowning death.
The comments of his grieving mother further stoke his suspicions. Plus, the
lack of an autopsy and the thuggish efforts to warn him off totally signal foul
play to any half-awake viewer. Honestly, the way everyone around Devlin buries
their heads in the sand starts to really strain credulity.
There
is one reason to see Dark Place and
it is not the underdeveloped mystery of Brendan Higgins’ screenplay. It is Andrew
Scott’s remarkable lead performance. Although the Irish actor is probably still
best known for playing Jim Moriarty in the Cumberbatch Sherlock, he is totally convincing as a rust belt blue-collar
worker with undefined disadvantages. It really is more of a character study and
an acting showcase for Scott rather than a whodunit or a thriller.
Scott
also has terrific chemistry with Christa Campbell as his on-screen daughter, which
ironically makes it harder to buy into a lot of Devlin’s decisions. In fact,
the big payoff the film supposedly builds to is a badly contrived train wreck
of cop-outs. Yet, even at its best, Dark Place
is an uncomfortable, angst-ridden viewing experience.
Scott’s
work is truly award-worthy, but he is undone by Fellows’ slack execution and
Higgins’ anemic narrative. As a film, Dark
Place takes itself so seriously, it neglects its genre business, while
having way too much skullduggery going on to function as a straight
awareness-raising drama. It also demonstrates once again how hard it is for
films to stick the dismount. Recommended only for Scott’s fans and friends, A Dark Place opens today (4/12) in LA at
the Arena Cinelounge and in Chicago at the Facets Cinematheque.
