Small Town Murder Songs (2011)

You won't be disappointed!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Peter Stormare. The first time I saw him^ was in another (homespun) murder-story: 'Fargo'. There, he fit the bill perfectly, but here... I don't know, really. He has plenty of charisma for me to stay interested, but his performance never got under my skin, nor did the whole 'story'.The big texts on the screen weren't helping either, they didn't add anything to what was plainly there already. The music - fierce gospels with rhythmic percussion - is in itself beautiful, but maybe used a little too much.'Small town...' is a somewhat contemplative film on violence, change and forgiveness and their place in society and man, but it never becomes a truly gripping tale.5 out of 10.^ I checked out his career, and it seems I must have seen him earlier in 'Awakenings', but I can't recall his part.

This is the absolute worst movie I've ever seen. I kept watching it thinking that it's gotta get better. I held that thought right up to the credits. Don't know where they got the guy who played the police chief, but almost anyone could play his part since his part was mostly sitting quietly and sulking. I'll bet that he didn't say more than 20 words through the whole movie. I don't know why writers think that the brooding, silent type is what people want to see, but as for me, a character like makes me want to slap him and say, "Say something". I've seen some real stinker movies before, but this one takes first place. Just an awful movie!.

Well, it's happened before where I've been taken in by the promotional blurbs on a film's DVD cover. "A rare film. Cosmologically profound." was the way Variety Magazine put it. "A must-see fresh take on crime and redemption." from the Toronto Star; forgivable I guess because this is a Canadian movie. Then there's "Haunting...Totally Captivating.", which if I had read further to see that it came from the Huffington Post I might have put it down right there.With that kind of a build-up, my expectations were raised for a unique viewing experience. Unfortunately, this film with the cool title is basically your every day murder mystery that could pass in most places as a TV episode, take your pick of series. A plot element that might have had much more of an impact if it had been explored further was the character of police chief Walter (Peter Stormare), who in flash backs is shown beating on an unknown victim, but without that person's identity, there's no ability to connect the dots to the case at hand. All we know is that Walter has rage control problems and he's trying to overcome them, but in the final analysis, I didn't find that to be good enough.Oddly, with the issue I had with the story line, I was strangely fascinated by the bluesy gospel inspired sound track. It would have been better if the music didn't suddenly blare out at you as it did; I had to constantly go for the volume control to bring the level down a few notches. I don't know anything about the Mennonite community or their religion, so I can't say if the music fit the picture's sensibilities or not. But it did seem to reconcile itself with Walter's quest for personal redemption.Now I'm thinking about the ending, and I have to wonder. Was the creepy guy Steve arrested for the murder (all indications pointed to that), or for assailing Walter? You know these two had a bad history between them, but was this a case of the ends justifying the means on Walter's part? Not really clear if you think about it. And the bigger question - how does a looker like Rita get involved with a couple of characters like Walter or Steve in the first place?

As a murder mystery, it crashes and burns terribly. If you want a "whodunit," prepare to be disappointed, because you don't have to be Encyclopedia Brown to put THIS one together.But as a character study, it's interesting. Yes, these people would have to be absolute cretins to not know who killed the girl, but that notwithstanding, it's an interesting look at someone trying to move beyond his past in a small community where it's difficult to start over because everyone knows you too well. I've lived in a "no traffic light" town in my day, and anonymity and privacy are nearly impossible to find, much less a chance to re-make yourself. And, as one of the town's police officers, the protagonist has to interact with the community all the time, making a re-invention that much more difficult. Watching it for THAT makes it worth watching.So, consider it a movie where the event is more the internal struggle and not the outward struggle of solving the murder mystery. Keep your focus on the character, not the events, and you'll like it a lot more.