Cold in July

 

After being awoken from his sleep in the dead of night, Richard Dane loads bullets into his father’s old revolver with shaky hands before nervously heading into his living room in search of the noise’s source. With his wife and young son also in the house, his limited bravery is both counter-intuitive but necessary, as he comes face to face with what seems to be a burglar. A brief stand-off quickly reaches its bloody conclusion, as a shaken Dane stands with the dead burglar, a fresh bullet wound where his right eye previously was, at his feet.

The unfolding story - a grimy, Southern gothic thriller – is in equal parts tense, atmospheric and gripping, but ultimately deeply unsatisfying. Deciding to attend the funeral, Dane (Michael C. Hall) is passive-aggressively confronted by his victim’s father Russel (Sam Shepard), a grizzled, menacing man only recently paroled from prison. As their paths continue to cross in an ever-changing context, a plot much bigger than a simple revenge story unfolds, enveloping cartoonish private investigator Jim Bob (Don Johnson) along the way.

As the latest film from writer/director duo Jim Mickle and Nick Damici, Cold in July is visually and tonally spot on. It is reminiscent of William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, Lee Daniel’s The Paperboy and The Coen Brother’s No Country For Old Men in its representation of a sweaty, comfortless South, ostensibly polite and well mannered, with bursts of bloody violence always threatening to bubble to the surface. A synthy, foreboding score contributes to the atmosphere, taking notes from Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive in its use of almost continuous, often minimalistic music.

The leads, although seemingly acting in three completely different films, are independently respectable in different ways. Dexter’s Michael C. Hall, carving out a notable film career following his small-screen success, is arguably the strongest performance as the mustachioed, mulleted beta-male Dane. Sam Shepard’s performance as the menacing ex-con is straight from the pages of Great Expectations, as his Magwitch-esque Russel sinisterly looms over the bed of Dane’s sleeping son, before revealing himself to be more than the two-dimensional killer he at first appears to be. Don Johnson, riding high on the wave of the weird comeback only Quentin Tarantino can provide (part ironic, part nostalgic) continues to get decent-sized screen roles following his appearance as Big Daddy in Django Unchained. The former Miami Vice heart-throb teeters on the edge of ridiculousness as Jim Bob, the PI equipped with cowboy hat, six-shooter and ruby-red convertible.

It is narratively that Cold in July loses its way. I’m no exponent of films neatly wrapped together with a bow, spoon-fed to an audience, but so many questions are raised (under-aged sex, corrupt law enforcement, police brutality, a dead body stripped of its teeth and fingers, the looming presence of Dane’s deceased father) that all lead nowhere at all; the bloody, Taxi Driver-esque conclusion almost feels like a cop out. We’ve all been in that situation where, mid-way through an ill thought-out story, you realise the real ending is at best unsatisfactory or at worst utterly dull, and endeavor to make a better one up on the fly. In a panic, we inevitably result to what we know will get an audience reaction: an explosion of detail or shocking action so clearly made up and ill-fitting with the rest of the anecdote. This is particularly true of children when relating stories, and is unfortunately the case with Cold in July.

An initially appealing promise, executed with a stylish flair and great performances, unfortunately let down by a lacklustre and deeply unsatisfactory conclusion.

Cold in July will be shown at Broadway Cinema until the 10 July 2014.

Cold in July Site