Film noir has ascended from its murky origins in the dark
past back in the 1940’s to high cinema fashion in our time, when any crime
story of any kind earns the trendy term.
Detective films, gangster movies, horror flicks, everything but romantic
comedies, no matter their style or content, huddle under the great critical
umbrella of noir. The term is so common that in fiction it separates into
French noir (of course), Norwegian noir, Swedish noir, Irish noir, and so on ad
infinitum.
“Cold in July”
represents yet another version of the form, which it may actually deserve:
Texas noir, a film inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s dark vision. It resembles “No
Country for Old Men,” “The Counselor,” even “Killer Joe” in its location, its
people, its violence, its pervasive sense of criminality, its bleak view of
life. Because of its geographical
location, like others in the group it also retains a strong connection to the
Western.
The movie begins with a single act of violence, then proceeds
ineluctably down a strange twisting path of tension and fear, finally ending in
a bloodbath. Like many classic thrillers, it places its protagonist, almost by
mere chance, in a dark, scary mystery that ultimately
instructs him in the ways of a world he’d never known before, lifting the cover
off life to give him a look inside at the real workings of the universe.
Set in East Texas in 1989, the movie opens with Ann Dane (Vinessa Shaw) waking her husband Richard (Michael C. Hall)
to tell him she hears a noise. He
shakily loads a revolver and creeps downstairs to find an intruder with a large
flashlight examining his living room. He challenges the man, who turns around,
shining that bright light in his eyes, which somehow forces the frightened
Richard to shoot him.
From that moment Richard’s life
changes dramatically; shaken and sickened by his act, he rejects the
congratulations of acquaintances, who cannot understand his feelings of guilt
and sorrow. The detective lieutenant, Ray Price (Nick Damici),
reassures him that the dead man was a known felon with a long record, which
provides him little comfort. He encounters the man’s father, Russel (Sam Shepard), also a felon, who utters veiled
threats about Richard’s own little boy, plunging him into a panic.
Just when the plot appears to settle into a familiar thriller
pattern, with the innocent protagonist fighting off the attacks of a vengeful
criminal, it shifts into another gear, suggesting that a more complicated
scheme lies beneath the primary situation. Richard discovers that the police
follow a different agenda and that Russel amounts to
more than he seems. When an old friend of Russel’s, a
flamboyant cowboy private eye named (what else) Jim Bob (Don Johnson) enters
the movie in a red Cadillac, the three men embark on a quest to find the truth
about the burglar, the police, and what appears to be an official cover-up of a
more serious crime; in the process they unearth evidence about the Dixie Mafia,
snuff films, and a painful truth about Russel and his
son.
As the plot grows darker and more complicated and the
emotions move in unexpected directions, Richard changes in ways he never
expected, committed to a new kind of vengeance for reasons far beyond his
initial decision. In a sense he grows up, but because “Cold in July” shares
common ground with both the thriller and the Western, his maturation occurs
through violence, reflecting the manhood ritual that defines the trajectory of
the Western.
The three major actors create a strange trio of
characters. A generally passive actor,
Michael C. Hall reflects the transformations in his character mostly through
silences and facial expressions, a difficult task for an actor without a great
deal of presence. Lean, leathery, and laconic, the grizzled Sam Shepard looks
rather like Clint Eastwood’s (slightly) younger brother, expressing some
devastating emotional stress with grim understatement. Don Johnson, who’s not been around much
lately, is simply terrific as Jim Bob, a vital, colorful contrast to the two
morose men around him; he also appears to be enjoying the hell out of the movie
and his part; he makes this tough, brutal little thriller more than worthwhile.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2014.
