Out of Blue

Ace British director Carol Morley (The Falling, Dreams of a Life) gives us her take on the American cop thriller, but it's something of a disappointment. Adapting the Martin Amis parody Night Train, it's a film that occasionally plays as such, yet it's just as often po-faced and, as it looks to the stars, seems to strive for profundity. Patricia Clarkson plays Detective Mike Hoolihan, a dead-eyed scrutineer rocking a Joan Jett barnet who's all business despite her enigmatic past. When she investigates the apparent murder of a black-hole expert (Mamie Gummer) she unleashes a torrent of tenuously connected science babble from shady suspects. The astrophysics theme has a certain transcendental charm, which sadly goes nowhere, and is seemingly a bit of a red herring, allowing a conventional whodunnit to masquerade as something more. There's beauty and ample intrigue plus some enjoyable eccentricity (a ravenous Jacki Weaver, Clarkson storming the stage at a strip club) but the tonal shifts are harder to predict than the killer, while the film's overarching intention is the real mystery.