Tommy Lee Jones is Louisiana detective Dave Robicheaux, a former-alcoholic searching for a killer wanted for the grisly murders of a couple of young women in Bertrand Tavernier’s atmospheric thriller IN THE ELETRIC MIST. He’s haunted by some things he’s seen, some things he’s done, and the rather talkative ghost of a Confederate General.
The film features a terrific supporting cast with John Goodman as the lead suspect, a local crime boss by the name of Babyfeet Balboni. Peter Sarsgaard plays a heavy-drinking Hollywood star who’s shooting a film in the area (that happens to be bankrolled by Balboni) and Kelly McDonald plays his actress girlfriend. The musician Levon Helm (former drummer of The Band) plays the ghost of John Bell Hood, the real-life Civil War General who’s aggression and recklessness has plenty in common with the man he’s haunting/helping.
Robicheaux certainly is reckless: slashing tyres, beating information out of suspects and getting answers from the other end of a shotgun, Jones plays him as a man who’s a little fed up with the state of his county post-hurricane, and I don’t just mean it’s appearance.
Smooth jazz, beautiful shots of the swamp area and plenty of violence mixed with dodgy police work. A superb thriller that gets nearly everything right.
GJB
DVD Extras: Trailers.
Links->
GJB’s most illuminating and lovely blog, Sounds Like Cinema
A review of In The Electric Mist in French
ITEM is distributed locally through Madmen
Australian Film Review 