Sweet Virginia

Although this incoherent, blood-soaked attempt at neo-noir does at times give off a menacing No Country For Old Men vibe, the character studies here are too ill-conceived to make it consistently watchable. Walking Dead star Jon Bernthal does a credible job of playing a mild-mannered former rodeo champion turned humble motel night manager who gets mixed up in random murder and mayhem. Bernthal’s character Sam is a simple fellow who just wants to be left alone, but unbeknownst to Sam his friend Lila (Imogen Poots) has hired a psychopathic contract killer to murder her husband and then reneged, so the killer is now after her. And of course in this small Alaskan town it’s only a matter of time before Sam has a perilous run-in with said psychopath. Sweet Virginia offers plenty in the way of explicit violence but very little credible motive to back it all up (in fact, the movie’s carnage-filled set pieces feel like detached formal demonstrations of the newest techniques in cinematic bloodletting). And Christopher Abbott’s portrayal of the psychotic antagonist here is a cringingly self-conscious exercise in insanity. Sweet Virginia is a visually slick production in which the sophistication is, sadly, all surface. Optional. (M. Sandlin)