Refreshing thriller

Although the title of this week’s movie might be mocking in its downright untruth as temperatures continue to rise and the kingdom’s citizens slowly melt into the sand, Cold In July doesn’t attempt to pull the wool over your eyes as its hardboiled, brutal nature underpins a solid and engaging thriller.

What’s most striking about this film is that it’s pretty much three different movies in one, kind of like a Shakespearean play with three acts having strong tonal, setting and thematic dissonance, but held together by strong characters whose arcs run throughout.

We begin with the suspense-thriller aspect. Set in 1989, Richard Dane (Dexter’s Michael C Hall) is an average Texan going about his business and caring for his wife and young son, when an intruder breaks into their home. Dane shoots the criminal out of instinct and is immediately hailed as a hero by his small town and local police, but the guilt of taking a life hangs over him like a dark cloud.

The film then slips into noir, as the father of the dead criminal, a scummy villain through-and-through named Russel (Sam Shepard), starts threatening Dane and his family, drawing Dane into a criminal conspiracy that he is far too ill-equipped to handle.

The final act becomes straight revenge-action as local cowboy private detective Jim Bob (Don Johnson), rides in on his chrome horse to rescue Dane from the seedy underworld of crime, corruption and death.

The fish-out-of-water narrative is refreshing in an age of hardened action stars with more muscles than a seafood buffet, and this is certainly helped by a solid performance from Hall. He plays the loving but bumbling family man in a convincing fashion, and it’s clear from the get-go that he’s not the type of guy to go around blasting baddies with a cold stare for fun.

Therefore, it’s pretty fun when the script consistently strays into situations where he’s forced to be this man and often act on pure instinct rather than experience or skill.

The other actors deliver solid performances as well, especially Johnson’s Jim Bob. Unfortunately, he’s underplayed in his scenes and is not used as much as he should. The film’s greatest disappointments are when Johnson is owning a segment, clearly thoroughly enjoying the role, but then the scene is cut short. Forget the arson and robberies committed by Russel’s gang, this is the most criminal move in the film!
The depiction of violence is definitely worth mentioning, as there’s a decent amount of it and the 15+ rating is surprising considering some of the brutality on show. It’s hard-hitting, shocking and is certainly not glorified in any way. It’s so commonplace these days that audiences are desensitised to it, so it’s credit to the director that we see it and feel somewhat uneasy.

I also loved the film’s fairly anachronistic score. Considering this is set in the 1980s where hair metal and cheesy pop would be expected, the classical elements keeps the narrative on course and helps build the intensity and enhance its cruelty.

It isn’t perfect by any means; too much time is spent trying to establish a parallel theme of fathers and sons between Dane and Russel that results in some awkward dialogue and feels forced. Furthermore, some logical choices are strange and seem to be made to service the film and lead into another action scene, rather than what anyone would actually do in that situation, while the ending was too briskly wrapped up for my liking.

However, Cold In July is ultimately a brave move by director Jim Mickle, and in lesser hands the cross-genre aspect could have fallen apart and been a mess, but it absolutely works and is a better film for trying something different. It shapes one narrative full of twists and turns into a subversive genre flick that is violent, but intelligent and well-constructed.

Showing in Cineco