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OUT OF BLUE
Director: Carol Morley Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Toby Jones, Jacki Weaver, James Caan, Mamie Gummer, Aaron Tveit, Yolanda Ross, Jonhathan Majors, Devyn Tyler MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:49 Release Date: 3/22/19 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 21, 2019 The real mystery at the heart of Out of Blue is a personal one, but that, apparently, is not enough for writer/director Carol Morley. The movie, an adaptation of Martin Amis' novel Night Train, reaches for cosmic significance in its story about a murder investigation and a homicide detective, who becomes obsessed with the killing in ways she cannot comprehend. The scientific theorizing ultimately feels like a big distraction, keeping us off-guard from a mystery that isn't that involving on its own. The detective is a woman named Mike Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson), who is called to look into the apparent murder of astrophysicist Jennifer Rockwell (Mamie Gummer) at a local observatory. The suspects include the observatory's manager Ian Strammi (Toby Jones), who found the body but was equally concerned about his prized telescope being exposed to rain, and Jennifer's pseudo-boyfriend Duncan (Jonathan Majors), who was with her just before her death but ran home to think about the concept of multiple universes. There's something inherently amusing about this mash-up of worlds—the straight-to-the-point fact-gathering of police work and the meandering hypothesizing of intellectual pursuits. There's also something quite funny about Hoolihan's character, who has a man's name, an attitude that makes it seem as if the character is a blatant gender-swap, and—no joke—an honest-to-goodness case of amnesia, which prevents her from knowing anything about her life before she joined the police academy. Clarkson's performance is sincere and understated, which at least provides some balance to the weird quirks of her character. Indeed, Morley plays all of this—the jokey juxtapositions, the broad characterizations, the storytelling contrivances—straight. The same goes for the story's more-than-occasional veering into the realm of theoretical physics, as well as digging into Jennifer's past, raised by a potentially abusive father (played by James Caan) and a mother (played by Jacki Weaver) who's in denial, and the possibility that a serial killer from decades ago has come out of retirement. The movie wants us to take all of this seriously, but it's almost impossible when we're provided with one obvious contrivance, one lengthy philosophical discussion, and one red herring after another. There are solutions to at least two of the major mysteries in Out of Blue, but there doesn't seem be an answer to the thinking behind its approach. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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