Deadfall

This makes the movie look like a very
different movie than it is.

"You can't escape your past."

That is doubly true if your present-becoming-the-past is constantly full of dead police officers. Hi everyone, welcome to Tuesday's Tagline! Today's feature presentation is Deadfall, a relatively recent film (first aired at the Tribeca Film Festival last April) about a brother and sister who are in a car crash after a casino heist, and left stranded on the side of a snowy road near the Canadian border. After shooting a state trooper who finds their crashed car, Addison (Eric Bana who no one knows from the first Hulk movie) tells his sister Liza (Olivia Wilde, Tron, House, etc.) that they need to split up, and that they'll meet back up and make a break for the border. He does this nominally to protect Liza, who no one is aware was involved in the heist, and who hasn't shot someone. So Addison goes one way, and Liza goes the other. Liza, half-frozen in her totally not weather appropriate clothing, is picked up by Jay (Charlie Hunnam, you might recognize him as Jax from Sons of Anarchy) a recently paroled convict and former boxer, who believes that he has just accidentally killed a man in a confrontation (and so thinks it might be back to the slammer for him). While Liza and Jay start to buddy up, Addison meanwhile is racking up what one might consider and impressive list of very serious crimes, including a number of additional murders. It becomes clear that, while she is grateful for everything her brother has done for her, Liza just wants to have a normal, not blood-soaked life. Whether that's in the cards for her or not remains to be seen.

Oh man, remember when you still had
ten fingers Addison? That was cool.

I had heard mostly positive things about this movie, so I tried to approach it with an open mind, despite a premise that didn't sound all that interesting. I mean people are robbing things all the time, in movies, in real life the town over, like big deal. Still, it was there and it was only 90 minutes long, so I figured what the heck let's give it a shot. The movie doesn't waste any time getting straight the point, with their car flipping and people dying. I appreciate a movie that doesn't mess around, but there were certainly times where I thought maybe a little more exposition wouldn't have hurt. For instance, I have no idea where the hell this movie takes place other than "near the Canadian border". Maybe Michigan because Jay's coming from Detroit. I suppose when you get right down to it, I don't really NEED to know that, but it wouldn't have been all that hard to just come out and tell me right? I also totally had no idea that Jay's father Chet was a former Sheriff. I guess they mentioned it, but that one flew right  by me. I actually didn't realize for a while that the reason lady deputy Hannah (Kate Mara, who you have maybe seen if you watch American Horror Story) was getting sidelined by the whole department because the sheriff was her father and was just being an ass about being scared she was going to die. I'm not sure if that just makes me dense or what, but I think it could have been a little clearer.

It's just hitting her that she was in a show where she had
sex with Kevin Spacey.

It's also worth mentioning, if you aren't into movies where people are continuously maimed, this is probably not the movie for you. It isn't like, a splatterfest or something, but there is a lot of un-glamorous violence going on here, and when someone gets their finger slashed off and then has to cauterize it on the hot engine of a snow-mobile, no one is going to turn the camera away. Were I to take this movie as a general measure, police apparently get killed in droves near the Canadian border. I would not have bet on that. In similarly rated news, there are several pretty modestly explicit sex scenes with Olivia Wilde and Charlie Hunnam (well explicit for American cinema I guess) so just be ready for that, again no straight fade to black. Maybe that will make you want to watch the movie, I don't know, just be ready for a guy to get garroted by barbed wire within like 15 minutes of that. You're going to be full of confused emotions.

Liza should have been a frozen corpse about ten hours
before Jay was within 100 miles of her.

Ultimately though, I enjoyed the movie. It wasn't groundbreaking or earthshaking or any other extreme description, but it was an interesting movie about people mostly trying to get their shit together, with varying results. Also a lot of people getting murdered. If you have Netflix, I'd say it's definitely worth sparing 90 minutes for.

That's all for today! I'll see you on Thursday, as I continue to try and carry us through this very slow month.