If atmosphere came in solid form this film would sink a oil tanker with the weight. Intensely and unapologetically art house it makes films like Fargo look like an exercise in blockbuster summer cinema by comparison.

The basic story follows Whitaker's character investigating an death where his insurance company is liable for One Million dollars if the death is proven to be accidental. Cue the big teddy bear heading out to the plains to check out the story and get involved in intrigue along the way.

Some points.

The scenery and general setting is definetly one you'd remember, its like somebody came across an old dead mining community and just made matters worse by crapping all over it. It was supposedly set in an area of the USA while filmed in Iceland. Well Iceland sure looks inhospitable based on this film

Forest Whitaker better explain to me why he has an Irish accent in this film. I know I'm not crazy, he definetly had a Celtic lint unless there is some arsehole of nowhere area of the USA with the same accent.

Julia Stiles is oddly alluring despite the grimy setting.

Loved the usage of Music in certain scenes.

The pacing is very slow, its an intriguing set-up and you are sucked in, but you really do wish it would hurry up at points, and oddly it sort of complies by racing thru the very short final act.

If your a fan of Noir this is well worth checking out, I can understand how it never got a proper theatrical release (it would have been a very hard sell to the casual filmgoer in terms of structure and style) but I was oddly sucked in. The ending isn't a great pay-off but as a DTV you could do alot worse.

B