Once in a while a film jumps out that doesn't follow the conventional ways of storytelling and that certainly leads to a peak of interest. "Shimmer Lake" tells a murder mystery in reverse, in the ways Nolan brilliantly told his "Memento" decades ago, however nowhere near as gripping as that."Shimmer Lake" centers on an investigation lead by small-town sheriff Zeke Sikes, played by Benjamin Walker. The clever gimmick of the script is that the narrative is presented backwards, day by day within the time span of a week. While the way it informs the viewers on how the events came to be is interesting in its premise, the screenplay seems muddled and rushed, missing out tiny details or not explaining everything that leads up to the plot.The cast did a great job with an impressive performance by Rainn Wilson in particular. However, I felt like I couldn't connect with any of the characters and didn't find myself wanting them to either succeed or fail in the film. The film's running time doesn't even pass 90 minutes, this I believe, leading to a hasty narrative, overlooking backstory details."Shimmer Lake" sells itself as an interesting take on a crime mystery film, but ultimately it just isn't that interesting as it was supposed to be.

Although you don't have a character with short time memory loss, the story is told in pieces and starts in "current time", to move backwards, day by day. An obvious choice, since this makes the movie a little bit more interesting and gives it an edge, it would not have otherwise. After I finished it, I did rewind and check some scenes. There were subtle hints for things to come or rather things that happened.Still it is not above complete scrutiny and some may even say it is too clever for its own good. Nit-picking aside, if you like decent thrillers that keep you guessing with decent actors and decent acting in it, I can recommend this movie to you. Even with the warning signs, there are certain things that will surprise you. Whether you agree with the "morals" of the movie or not. And whether you accept some "coincidences" or not, is up to you ...

There are two reasons you might make a film with a non-linear time line. The first is that you have a twist in your film, however the twist doesn't come at the end of your story so you need to make it happen at the end of your story (much like 'Memento' did). The second, and inferior, reason is that your film simply isn't unique enough on its own. 'Shimmer Lake' is a combination of both of these reasons I suspect. There's a twist of sorts which would have come at the beginning of the film and now comes at the end. But what they won't tell you is that by doing this it is also hiding the fact that this is a very run-of-the-mill story line told a thousand times over. I'm sorry, but it really is. There is nothing fresh here in that regard. I feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities in this script as well. It should have been more fun. There should have been more reveals (or at least more important ones). As each day goes by backwards, it feels more like things are simply being confirmed for us, rather than taking us by surprise. There's also a quite bizarre tone to the film. There are a few actors in the cast known primarily for their comedic talents. When they're on screen the whole film feels more like a comedy than anything else. Then when they're not on screen the film decides to take itself very seriously. In that respect the film is an absolute mess that looks like it has been dissected a hundred times over in the editing room. There was an idea here that could have been good, but that was as far as things got. Sadly this is a misfire.

**SPOILER? I checked yes as it's borderline, but if you've seen the trailer, then this review should be OK.For the first time in all my many reviews, this film will be the first to receive two different reviews from me. Confusing? Let me explain.1) Initial review: 4/10From the start, and from reading the IMDb summary, I was expecting a Crime, Drama, Mystery. Then I got confused when at least two of the actors are know primarily for comedy, specifically Rob Corddry and Rainn Wilson. So the first flag went up. The premise of the story, being told in parts going backwards reminded me of one of my favorite films, Memento, so thus I had the same high expectations going into this film.From the start I was very disappointed. The characters where trying to play off some bad unnecessary humor, and it was, but it also explained why Corddry and Wilson where in it. But it was still bad, I guess bad enough that the Crime, Drama, Mystery classification intentionally left out Comedy.Then as the film progressed in reverse chapters, I started to hate it even more, thinking I would have enjoyed it more (and rated it higher) if it was simply told in the old fashioned chronological order. From the first 10 minutes forward, the film was predicable. I pretty much nailed every chapter.As I was watching from the start to about 90% to the end, I had already decided my 4/10 IMDb score with a lousy review cutting up this film to shreds. I couldn't wait for it to finish so I could slam this with negativity.2) Second/final review: 8/10 So now we're at the last 10% ending of the film. All along I thought I had it figured out, constantly complaining how I would have enjoyed this more had this story been told going forward. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised... and wrong!The way this was played out (backward chapters) had to be done so, for the ending to have the shock factor it had. My prediction of 'who-dun-it' and 'why' was way off!It was so well done, my score went from 4/10 to 8/10! Granted, if the comedic actors where replaced by more serious actors, and the dumb humor was omitted from the script, I may have given this a 9/10 and maybe even a 10/10. The ending was that good, especially when I had so much hate for it in the first 90% of the movie! I'm not sure why the writers/director chose the part-comedy portions but nevertheless, it was their decision and the ending still left a great impact on my final review.So my final review stands at 8/10 due to the surprisingly and unexpected great ending!