20 October,2023 05:54 PM IST | Mumbai | Johnson Thomas
Source/Instagram
This film, on the lines of âFargo,' doesn't have a consistent tone or any elevating or redeeming elements to give its audience a boost. The storyline here was apparently inspired by true crime incidents that took place in Texas. On October 12, 2000, a Texan named Mary Morris was murdered. On October 16, 2000, another Texan named Mary Morris was murdered. The dual assassination - both clearly the work of a hitman, were the talk of the townsfolk. Were these crimes done by a bumbling assassin or a deliberately obfuscating one?
John Hamm plays the good guy, socially awkward cop, grieving his dead wife - one who is afraid to move on. Tina Fey plays the woman, a divorcee, who manages to get him interested enough to take a chance with life and living, againâ¦all in the midst of a murder investigation. Two stories are being attempted here. One about a looser, who gets into deep trouble while being involved with the wrong criminal guys and the other story, a sort of quirky romance - but both fail to lift off. The movie follows the residents of a typically sleepy small town as they get embroiled in the tale of mistaken identity as told from the perspective of both the sheriff investigating the crimes and the sap who ordered the killings.
This film is essentially a quirky dark comedy done in 1990's style. It's not dramatic in any way. The murders take place in clinical fashion and the investigation is also done in such a lackadaisical manner that you would begin to think that it's a common thing for two murders to take place in a small town - that too of two women bearing the same name. It's not exactly a comedy. There's hardly anything to smile about. The plotting is rather ordinary, the performances are below par and the scripting is more interested in adding amiable elements than developing a strong narrative. The film is rather underdeveloped in all it's major milestone elements like
romance, basic humor, murder and investigations involving cops.
John Hamm as Chief Sanders and Fey as Rita, go through the motions but the sequences they are in, seem flat and uninteresting. There's no real chemistry between the two. Jay Moore (Micah Stock playing it straight), a small-town idiot running a scam on his employers and customers at a sub sandwich shop, also husband to one of the victims, is the obvious suspect.This kind of a storyline has been done a thousand times before and in much better fashion, especially by the Coen Brothers. The narrative encompasses elements that hearken back to âFargo' and âRear Window' but there's not enough seasoning for it to be comparable in similar vein. Lensed by John Hamm's former Mad Men co-star John Slattery, the mountain ranges of New Mexico provide enough drama - but the inconsistent tone, slack momentum and indeterminate tension doesn't allow for any affection to take hold. The formidable cast fail to make a mark largely because of flat scripting and uninspired helming.
The plot holds few surprises and the unwieldy exposition makes sure there is not much suspense to be had.
When the narrative tries to be funny, it's enervating and when the serious tone takes over, it's uninteresting. The mixing of the two different tones just doesn't come good. The resultant is so bland as to be completely forgettable.
