The Tall Man had some unexpected twists that I was not expecting. Upon turning it on I thought it would be a movie that was about a woman’s child who disappears and she must go on the search for him but, this movie really does take the twist to a good level of keeping you surprised. The main problem is that it is terribly shot causing it to almost look like a television movie at times. This movie can at least be attributed as being quite original.
Julie is a nurse in a small town who lost her husband years earlier. A legend runs in this town of a “Tall Man” who takes the children in Cold Rock. Julie has a son and, one night wakes up in the middle of finding him being taken. She heads out to stop the kidnapper but, is unsuccessful. When she reaches out to the town to help her find him though she finds that people have turned on her and, it is up to her to recover her child if she wants to find him. Now she is in a battle to get her child back.
Jessica Biel stars in this thriller and, is most likely the only face you will recognize in the whole movie. For some reason her career seems to be nose diving or she just took a part in this because she was given a hand in making it, which I might conceal if I was her. She is a decent actress but, so far I haven’t found anything particularly interesting about her acting skills. The only other recognizable face from a few movies is Jodelle Ferland as Jenny and, if her past parts in Case 39 and The Twilight Sage: Eclipse are any indicators it’s that she doesn’t have a long career in the field of acting. She seems to overact dramatically so.
The movie does do some things well that keeps you watching though and, if you can make it past the first hour it actually improves dramatically. That also becomes the problem, the first hour feels like a completely different movie than the last hour of it. It seems to take shape as far as story and direction in the last hour with something that is trying to grasp for substance but, it’s too late after watching the first hour that felt like a Lifetime movie. It’s a movie that is trying to reach way too deep way too late and, that almost makes it odd because at this point the deeper statement is a poor attempt.
What is disappointing is that you could have easily salvaged the movie by just not shooting certain scenes at odd angles because it somehow cheapened the movie. The thing is by the second half I was feeling thoroughly impressed with the story was going and, admiring the bold direction it was taken in. That alone is enough reason to watch but, the story isn’t handled very well with how it’s shot or even acted.
The Tall Man may be a movie you haven’t heard of for a reason and, that is sort of a shame considering it did have potential as far as story. Many movies nowadays, especially mysteries, don’t really provide that good of twists nowadays and, most things you can see coming. This one though really does throw in some things that leaves the viewer not being able to guess that was going to happen but, the shots of the scenes aren’t well carried out and, some of the acting is just flat.
Rating 6 of 10.
An Innovative Pursuit 