SHIMMER LAKE (2017)

 

Written & Directed By: Oren Uziel Cinematography: Jarin Blaschke Editor: Blake Maniquis 

Cast: Benjamin Walker, Rainn Wilson, Stephanie Sigman, John Michael Higgins, Wyatt Russell, Adam Pally, Rob Corddry, Ron Livingston, Mark Randall

An inventive crime thriller told backward, reversing day by day through a week following a local sheriff's quest to unlock the mystery of three small-town criminals and a bank heist gone wrong.

This could have easily been a story for a season-long show BIG SKY.  Even though it takes place over and not a few days.

Written and directed by noted screenwriter Oren Uziel. The film has the originality of his usual screenplays. Only here in a little more serious thriller vein. You can see why it was on the black list of 2009 (The Blacklist is a yearly list of the best-unproduced screenplays voted on by script development executives) 

The story is told backward over a week. As we start with Friday and go back to Monday to see how a bank robbery affects a small town and its citizens.

The film is better than expected especially as a Netflix original film. Before they got distracted by having big stars and budgets and seemed to still care about storytelling.

As the film is an ensemble film. It’s also a thriller with double-crosses, twists, and backstabbings that once you think you have it figured out. It surprises you again but at least as it goes along it gives you more information to see why certain characters act the way they do or why they make the decisions they do. 

It allows for plenty of quirky characters and situations. Though it does rein it in for the seriousness of everything at hand. As well as the overall dramatic implications all over.

We even get to know most of the characters involved in some way. As each day or part of the film that focuses on that day also tends to focus on the character we begin the day with and brings us into the grander puzzle of it all. Half the joy is discovering and witnessing how it all fits together. As well as the reasoning of various characters. 

The cast all rise to the occasion to keep the audience riveted and invested. If you pay attention what happens or will happen is spoken of and told in a certain way before it happens. Even though the ending is a little hard to believe. It still works as long as you believe how cold-hearted the characters can be. Even if they show warmth, humanity, and humor before. 

Stephanie Sigman as a run-down wife in mourning who can be plain one minute, aggressive the next, and sexy out of nowhere and not really having to really try. She is a versatile actress who needs to work more, especially after her dynamic debut in the movie MISS BALA.

While the film has a lived-in quality. It still lacks a certain depth it needs a little more grit.

Can admit to watching it a second time just to make sure I understood everything. It’s not a long movie but it does pack a jab and enough intrigue to keep you guessing.

Grade: C+