- Film Review
- Reviewed By David Parkinson
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2 out of 5
Based on James Lee Burke's novel In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead, French director Bertrand Tavernier's US debut never quite catches light. Essentially, a treatise on the past's habit of haunting the present, it centres on maverick Louisiana cop Tommy Lee Jones, who stumbles onto the link between the murder of a black man in the 1960s and the serial killing of several local girls in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Chief among the suspects are mobster John Goodman and business tycoon Ned Beatty. But Jones finds himself distracted by the presence of a movie crew and his growing friendship with drunken actor Peter Sarsgaard and his loyal girlfriend Kelly Macdonald. Despite the atmospheric contributions of cinematographer Bruno de Keyzer and composer Marco Beltrami, the film suffers from a surfeit of political and supernatural subtexts, and lacks the edge of Tavernier's fine 1981 adaptation of Jim Thompson's bayou saga, Clean Slate.
Plot Summary
Mystery thriller starring Tommy Lee Jones, Peter Sarsgaard and John Goodman. Post-Katrina New Orleans: when alcoholic lawman Dave Robicheaux investigates the murder of a local prostitute, little does he know that it will draw him in to a deadly conspiracy involving a local gangster, a pair of Hollywood stars and a murder he witnessed decades before.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Dave Robicheaux
- Tommy Lee Jones
- Elrod T Sykes
- Peter Sarsgaard
- Julie "Baby Feet" Balboni
- John Goodman
- Bootsie
- Mary Steenburgen
- Kelly
- Kelly Macdonald
- Twinky LeMoyne
- Ned Beatty
- Rosie Gomez
- Justina Machado
- Ben Hebert
- James Gammon
- Gen John Bell Hood
- Levon Helm
- Sam "Hogman" Patin
- Buddy Guy
- Lou Girard
- Pruitt Taylor Vince
- Michael Goldman
- John Sayles
Crew
- Director
- Bertrand Tavernier
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