OUT OF BLUE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: CAROL MORLEY / STARRING: PATRICIA CLARKSON, AARON TVEIT, TOBY JONES / RELEASE DATE: 2ND SEPTEMBER
Jennifer Rockwell (Mamie Gummer), an astrophysicist who specialises in black holes and is an advocate of the multiverse theory, is found dead next to her telescope having being shot three times. New Orleans Detective and recovering alcoholic Mike Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson) is assigned the case.
Her first two suspects are Jennifer’s boss Professor Ian Strammi (the always excellent Toby Jones) and her boyfriend/colleague Duncan Reynolds (Jonathan Majors). However, Hoolihan’s investigations lead her on a twisted path that involves Schrödinger’s cat, string theory, quantum mechanics and dark matter, which in turn forces her to confront a repressed childhood trauma concerning a serial killer and has her questioning the nature of existence and the universe.
Based on Martin Amis’ 1997 short novel Night Train, director Carol Morley’s Out of Blue is part murder-mystery, part metaphysical neo-noir, but all weirdly trippy. Indeed, the David Lynch and Nicholas Roeg influences are blatant and, interestingly, Nicholas Roeg’s son Luc is the film’s producer. As interesting as the premise seems, the film itself doesn’t quite live up to expectations, but that’s not to say the film is without merits.
Morley has created a visually gorgeous film thanks to Conrad W. Hall’s cinematography. New Orleans is not the vibrant, colourful city we are used to seeing on screen – here it seems stiflingly claustrophobic, which serves the story well. Clint Mansell’s score is atmospheric, although it does sometimes become little more than sonic wallpaper. The cast all deliver fine performances despite a screenplay that meanders so much that it’s difficult to emotionally engage with the characters, let alone define just what the film’s point is.
Even with the cosmological trappings, it’s not science-fiction and it’s too predictable and clichéd to be a crime drama. That might be deliberate, as during the scene when Hoolihan first visits the crime scene the sound fades to near silence and the camera tracks away from the detective, which might suggest the irrelevancy of the crime to the story as a whole. It might also suggest that, in hunting down the killer, Hoolihan is in the process of discovering herself. While ambiguity is certainly no bad thing, not rewarding an audience with some clues endangers alienating them.
