Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones) is juggling two murder cases, one involving a young girl and the other a chained black man who was shot in a swamp 40 years ago. We’ve met Robicheaux on screen before in Heaven’s Prisoners (1996), but in Jones’s guise he becomes a more compelling figure. Director Bertrand Tavernier brings us along for an exciting but unremarkable story where Louisiana’s dank swamps, Katrina-ravaged neighborhoods, the acting and Marco Beltrami’s music score are more thrilling than the murder cases. Oddly enough, the film was never shown in U.S. theaters.
2009-U.S.-France. 102 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Bertrand Tavernier. Novel: James Lee Burke (“In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead”). Music: Marco Beltrami. Cast: Tommy Lee Jones (Dave Robicheaux), John Goodman (Julie “Baby Feet” Balboni), Mary Steenburgen (Bootsie Robicheaux), Peter Sarsgaard, Kelly Macdonald, Pruitt Taylor Vince… Ned Beatty. Cameo: John Sayles.
Trivia: Also available in a 117 min. version.
