Small Town Crime

Mike Kendall, a policeman thrown off the force, lives on drink and stays at his sister's house. One morning he finds a badly injured woman by the road; when she dies in hospital he starts his own investigation, presents himself as a private detective and begins taking money from her family. Eshom and Ian Nelms hold the film between black comedy and crime picture; Mike makes everything worse at every step and what he uncovers drags him somewhere he cannot handle. John Hawkes leads and carries the pathetic and the stubborn side of the character at once. Anthony Anderson, Octavia Spencer and Robert Forster are in the cast. Muscle car chases and dry small-town landscape make the atmosphere. Who it is for: viewers who like small-scale American crime films and black humour. Who it is not for: anyone who will find the place of the women victims in the story objectionable.