There are two fundamental flaws to this film. It is really slow and never picks up pace, and the director seeks to fill the gaps by annoyingly loud mood music that serves no purpose whatsoever.This is a great pity as it is a good story, the actors are excellent and the locations, whilst minimal are stunning. I think the film could have been better lit but that would have been no big thing until you add the lack of pace and monotone sound track. Did I say it was annoying? I mean really annoying.

Sweet Virginia, where dreams come to die. The movie is dictated by Lila (Imogen Poots) hiring Elwood (Christopher Abbott) to murder her husband, which he ended up killing two more people.I don't really know what was the exact goal of the director, Jamie M. Dagg, with this movie. It's a mix of well placed scenes with some seemingly random scenes. Some scenes helped me understand what motivated the characters, giving a good background and their point of view on the reality they were facing and/or faced. But some scenes throughout the movie, especially scenes involving Sam (Jon Bernthal), just looked like that they were there to fill time until the end, not giving any real purpose or content to the story itself. It made me feel confused, in a somewhat small movie of 93 minutes.I also got the impression that the real goal of the movie was to show how screwed up people are, with all the lies, deceit and lack of truth in their actions. I was able to feel the tension in almost every part of the movie, which was a good thing.I enjoyed watching Jon Bernthal play a character outside his normal roles. Here he is someone non-violent, that shows patience and compassion. Was surprising to say the least, but a good surprise.It was good to see a reality that I personally never experienced. A reality filled with secrets, lies, opportunism and, at some degree, fake. What threw me down to not give a better rating was the way the story was told, I felt kind of empty while watching it, becoming lost in my thoughts "why is this happening?", "what's the point of this?", "did they forget about her?". They could have delivered it a bit better, with more consistency. I really wanted to like this movie, had potential, but, unfortunately, I have to give it 6 out of 10.

Hello middle of the road, here we are again with actor's you kind of know but kind of don't. The film is only average, you've seen it before somewhere believe me, anyway i'm mainly here because of Jon Bernthal, I've watched him in numerous TV shows and films now and most recently the Punisher, boy can he act, i don't think anyone ever could do what he does, and what is that i hear you ask?. He acts as a glorified tough man version of himself, in every scene in every show or movie ever. Enough Already. He plays the Punisher in a new TV show and now he's punishing us in real life, Jon Bernthal will surely get the Jon Bernthal Oscar this year, indeed nobody does Jon Bernthal quite like Jon Bernthal over and over and over.......

This is one of those films which goes round in your head for hours or days after you've watched it. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it achieves cult status, with debates on its merits and shortfalls continuing for some time. It often felt like it was on the brink of something exceptional, but that never quite manages to break through to that accolade and even though it certainly swept me away in places, I came away not fully satisfied. Without question it is a very powerful film and there is much to love here. It's great work. The cast is superb. Jon Bernthal who plays Sam 'slam dunks' this role like he does every one, and really was a perfect choice for this part. Actually, the whole cast is superb. Christopher Abbott does a similarly excellent portrayal with the chillingly edgy and psychotic Elwood.Its a deep and rich story, well constructed and thick with the intricacies of real life and complex relationships. There's no glossing over the plot with thin filmed convenience or casual coincidence, it as detailed story that unfolds well and delivers how a good thriller should. The characters all have well constructed identities that give the film excellent realism. Bernthal's character has more meat on its bones than an Angus steak. Great care has been taken to give him a fully laden his persona with all the dimension of real life and I think actually this may be one of the films failings. There's so much meat on the carcass the film never really gets round to addressing all the choice cuts available. At the end your left wondering about delicious morsels untasted and left as carrion for the mystical Hollywood scavengers. The film is well directed well and well structured, but the pacing is slow and consistently so. I think this is another of its failings, a small one, but still a failing. I say this because with a film with so much to depict, accelerating the pace in places would serve to heighten excitement in areas that could have been more engaging while more comprehensively addressing certain aspects of the story. Having said that, what the film does expertly is create a suspense filled ambiance throughout, and that goes a long way to compensating for the issues I have picked at.I liked it a lot but didn't love it. It was just too consistently low key, and everything somehow felt mildly underdone. I will definitely watch it again though, and actually think I will enjoy it more the second time.I do recommend it, as it is still a pretty good film.