After being stuck on a train for an
extra hour-and-a-half, I finally made my way to the J.A. De Seve
Theatre for the Fantasia Film Festival's opening film The Tall Man.
After her son goes missing, Julia
Dunning (Jessica Biel) discovers he may be the latest victim of a
local urban legend named The Tall Man.
Expectation can be an unforgiving
beast, as the buzz on this film after its premiere at SXSW was
lukewarm. Pascal Laugier's debut Martyrs was a grisly and disturbing
affair, so one would naturally be predisposed to expect something
similar for his follow-up. I have to echo festival director Mitch
Davis' comments when he introduced the film. He was quick to point
out that The Tall Man was not Martyrs, but a completely different
animal.
Before I get into The Tall Man though,
I should mention the short that played in front of it. Nick
Lacelle's Cure was a well done slice of a post-apocalyptic world that
was made even more impressive by its tiny budget. Shot in
three-and-a half days and costing four hundred dollars, Cure
accomplishes more in ten minutes than some other productions of the
same ilk do in ninety.
As for The Tall Man, once you wrap your
head around what it isn't, I'd say it is a solid thriller. I had a
bit of an 'uh-oh' feeling at the beginning because there was
something very television about it. It possessed a certain look and
the opening credits sequence felt like something you would see on a
trendy show like The Walking Dead or Harper's Island. Then I
realized it was because it was shot in Vancouver and I was flashing
back to the early X-Files episodes I devoured in my twenties.
Speaking of which, it was great to see Bill “Smoking Man” Man again, as he appears as the town sheriff.
Jessica Biel in The Tall Man. |
As I said, The Tall Man is not Martyrs,
but that's not to say it doesn't feature some morose subject matter.
Laugier is an extremely skilled filmmaker and always in control.
There were a few times that I thought the movie might be coming off
the rails, but he always managed to reign me back in. Though it is
clearly shot in Canada, the film itself often recalled the French New
Wave. The isolated locales and superb production design reminded me
of Moraux & Palud's Ils, and there was also an excellent midnight
van chase ala High Tension.
I think the real standout of The Tall
Man is Jessica Biel. She gives a really strong performance here, particularly with a monologue that she delivers toward the end of the film. Nothing I had previously seen of her gave me any indication that she
was capable of something like this, so that was a nice surprise. The only glaring negative of the movie is the length. It doesn't have an excessive running time, but it is one of those movies that seems to have six or seven endings. With each new scene it faded to in the last fifteen
minutes, I felt the piece diminished as a whole. I'm all for tying up
loose ends, but this seemed excessive.
The Tall Man, though flawed, is a very functional thriller. As the trailer would suggest, Laugier has made something a little more commercial, but he still manages to retain his dark edge.
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