Last week saw the straight-to-DVD United States release of Bertrand Tavernier's film adaptation of the James Lee Burke novel, In The Electric Mist with Confederate Dead. The film first premiered this year at the Berlin Film Festival, but received no theatrical release in the US, despite the star power of performers Tommy Lee Jones, Mary Steenburgen, John Goodman, and Ned Beatty.
Filled with bayou atmosphere, the film follows Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux as he sorts through two cases that tie together past and present, history and future, black and white, rich and poor. The cultural tension that permeates the movie creates the backdrop for a psychological crime drama whose suspense comes primarily from the personal conflict of Robicheaux. The crime action itself serves more to buffet the lead character on his internal journey than to create an action-heavy thrill-ride.
In the Electric Mist is rich in atmosphere, and that is perhaps its strongest point. All aspects of the film-making process come together to drive home the feeling of the Louisiana bayou, from the detailed sets to the slow pace to the contrast between the simmering intensity of the true Louisiana folks with the outlandish extroversion of the outsiders and the locals who have been won over by Hollywood culture. It is a movie best experienced with your full attention.
It takes a bit more than full attention to track the symbolic part of the movie, suggested by part of the book's title that was left off the DVD release -- ...with Confederate Dead. After one viewing, I was left understanding the central message of that theme, but feeling as if there was more depth to it than I had grasped, and yet unsure where to find that depth. Unfortunately, that may be the result of The version of the film that was shown at Berlin seems to have been fifteen minutes longer, and I suspect that those fifteen minutes would have driven home the quasi-mystical themes of the movie, but were probably cut in hopes of kicking the pace up for American audiences. The pace is still slow, so I think I would have preferred to see the original film.
There is a strong sense of suspense in the film, but it is delivered through tragedy and the search for resolution, not high action. While Tommy Lee Jones delivers the sort of performance one might expect and there are certainly plenty of thriller mainstay elements, this is not an action piece, an in intrigue, or a intricate mystery. If you cannot get invested in the tension of a complicated shades-of-grey lead character and his search for answers to questions that may not e fully expressed, the suspense will likely escape you and you will be left with a slow movie with an unsurprising plot. And if you cannot get absorbed into the play of contrasts and dialectics within the fabric of the rural Louisiana cultural fabric, you probably find the message trite, the ending too neat, and some of the performances (e.g., John Goodman as Baby Feet Balboni) as over-the-top and distracting. But if you can allow yourself to experience the film through Jones' Robicheaux, you will find yourself sharing his internal conflict, delighting in bright spots of energy like Alana Locke's Alafair, and clinging to a misty hope for resolution.
...Nicholas Mascota, critic and fan...
| In the Electric Mist by Bertrand Tavernier | DVD release 2009 |
| Genre: Psychological Thriller | Intention: Thought-provoking suspense |
| Appeal: Moderate | Target: Fans of brooding crime drama |
| Best if... You like like atmosphere and can have empathy with characters in shadows | Worst if... You have no patience for Deep South pacing or little tolerance for self-important airs. |
| Nicolas Mascota's Like-o-Meter: 3 of 5 | Fan-Spot Salmon Ladder: 4 of 6 Rungs |
The Like-o-Meter indicates NM's own personal preference for the work. 1 indicates that he is probably not inclined to experience the work again; 3 that he would probably enjoy it a second time, but is not likely to seek it out; 5 that he may very well be checking it out again right now. The Salmon Ladder suggests how well NM thinks the work transcends its genre and target audience. 1 means it is not going very far; 6 means that it is well on its way to swimming into universal appeal.
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