MovieChat Forums > Cold in July (2014) Discussion > Entertaining but a mess. (spoilers)

Entertaining but a mess. (spoilers)

posted 11 years ago by stemal-1
5 replies | jump to latest

I'll give this 7/10 for sheer entertainment value. 110 minutes that had me glued to the screen.

But what a disjointed film. There was no flow to the narrative as a whole. It was like three episodes of a TV series with some of the ones in between missing.

I love a plot twist, but these were too sudden. It left major plot points unresolved in its rush to move on, particularly in the first half. Surely you can't be expected to forget about Sheriff Price after what he did? Who did Richard shoot? Finding out was his motivation after all.

Finally I didn't buy Richard's extreme transformation in what was presumably a relatively short period of time.

Despite my moans, I still enjoyed it. But maybe better as a 6 episode TV series?

[–] qubsoft-923-607274 11 years ago

Just finished watching it, and I don't quite understand your criticism about the flow. Each scene logically followed the previous one. What more could you expect?

The story was messy, but I see that as an accurate depiction of life. Not everything in life becomes resolved. We often time start down a path for one reason, but continue for another. There are many different paths the story could have taken, but they can only take one. Considering they already filled up about 2 hours the story they decided to tell, how could you expect them to cover all the lose ends? And besides, none of the paths of the characters would have lead to any of the other mysteries to be revealed, for obvious reasons. Why is it a flaw for a movie to leave some questions unanswered?

[–] stemal-1 11 years ago

Maybe 'disjointed' was the wrong word to use. It just seemed as though there were bits missing.

Like you say, they'd already used nearly 2 hours, so what more could they do? That's why I suggested this might have been better as a quality 6 x 40 minute TV series.

[–] sc_taylor 10 years ago

Agree with you 100% An enjoyable mess.

[–] Silverhawkins 10 years ago

Agree with you entirely, but I think that TV series already exists, it's called Fargo :P

"oh mummy, oh daddy - lets all play Kabadi!"

[–] stemal-1 10 years ago

Agree with you entirely, but I think that TV series already exists, it's called Fargo :P

You're right!! I've only recently watched Fargo and the change in Martin Freeman's character over several episodes is much more satisfying.