When Detective Mike Hoolihan is called to investigate the shooting of leading astrophysicist and black hole expert, Jennifer Rockwell, she is affected in ways she struggles to comprehend.
I thought this was going to be one of those suspenseful dramas where there is murder and you swear you have the right person but there is this amazing twist that you don’t expect and at the end, the person who committed the crime is the last person you would choose. This is not one of those films! Basically, this is what happens and how I felt watching it.
Scientist Jennifer Rockwell (Mamie Gummer) is found dead and Detective Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson) who just happens to be a recovering alcoholic and who can miraculously see images of clues that help her solve the case, begins questioning suspects. She interrogates several people she assumes were close to Jennifer including boyfriend Duncan (Johnathan Majors) just to find out if he has anything to do with the murder. From here on out things get a bit twisted and not in a good way. She is approached by a reporter named Stella (Devyn A. Tyler) who tries to convince her that the murderer is The 31 Caliber Killer. Detective Hoolihan does not buy this story and keeps interrogating individuals she believes are involved including Jennifer’s twin brothers. Yes, she all of a sudden has twin brothers who play into the story. After no luck with the brothers, she finally gets clues about the father being the main one involved, then wait, no! Was it actually a suicide? At this point in the film the story goes in so many directions and takes too long to actually get to a solid place, you don’t care about figuring out who did it. It could have been a random mailman at this point and you would have been satisfied but it drags on some more.
What didn’t work for the film is the story. It was weak and had absolutely no direction. I felt like they were writing it as they went along and got confused, added a bunch of characters, then said let’s make the boyfriend look like the killer, no wait, what about the 31 Caliber Killer? No, maybe the father! I was very disappointed that it literally went nowhere. It wasn’t exciting, suspenseful or scary. I didn’t believe any of it! Not sure what it was supposed to be. I think something could have worked if at least the characters had some chemistry. The supposed boyfriend wasn’t even mortified when he found out about her death. Actually, not one person showed authentic sorrow. I thought maybe she was going to come back to life, like it was all a hoax. There were also other characters in the film that didn’t strengthen the story so there really was no need for them to even be written in like the mom and the student that was supposed to be an alibi. Sorry to say, this movie is not a must-see.
In theaters Friday, March 22nd
