Written & Directed by Phil Blattenberger
Part of what I get to do with this blog is see all these really small, barely distributed movies every year and find some real diamonds in the rough. It can be an arduous process at times, because more often than not there is a reason the movie is small and barely distributed, if you catch my drift. But even when the movie is bad, there is usually something intriguing to keep my interest, whether it be some star I know or haven’t seen in a while, or is exploring a specific underrepresented genre, or just trying something I’ve never seen before, even if it doesn’t work out in the end. The real joy is discovering something I think so many more people should check out and see. Laws of Man is one of those movies. Oh no, not the kind more people should see. It’s just a small, barely distributed movie released early in the year with a fascinating cast that’s really going for something. It’s still bad.
Laws of Man follows US Marshals Frank (Jacob Keohane) and Tommy (Jackson Rathbone) in early 1960s Nevada as they track down a couple of warrants. As they come upon the town of Gilead, they encounter more than they bargained for in an attempt to serve the arrest warrant for local rancher Benjamin Bonney (Dermot Mulroney), who is suspected of killing to expand his vast ranching empire. Stymied by the local politico Galen Armstrong (Keith Carradine) and Bonney himself, the pair begin to unravel the mystery of what’s really been going on in Gilead, Nevada with the help of the stories of a few locals (Graham Greene, Forrie J. Smith, Kelly Lynn Reiter), as Frank goes through his PTSD with the help of travelling preacher Cassidy Whittaker (Harvey Keitel).
There is more than enough story to go around in this movie. Emphasis on more. Too much in fact. For what starts as a pretty intriguing crime genre film, the movie really goes off the rails in the second half trying way too many twists and turns without doing the legwork to really deserve getting there. It’s shock for shock’s sake and nothing more, which is a real shame because I was kind of tuned into the grimy lives of these Marshals travelling to the middle of nowhere to catch the bad guys who were doing bad things in these remote western towns. It felt very much like a cheap B-movie noir in the first half (can most definitely be a good thing sometimes), but it gives way to a wacky Cold War conspiracy theory maze in the second, robbing me of any pleasure I had getting to that point. It leans too heavily on these twists, too heavily on the PTSD of Frank (whose vacant portrayal by Jacob Keohane actually works for the character to begin with), and much too heavily on the really going for it performance of Dermot Mulroney as the principle baddie Benjamin Bonney. I have no idea what movie Mulroney thinks he’s in, but his performance goes a little too big even for this.
I’m not familiar with writer/director Phil Blattenberger’s previous works, but there are enough good aspects about this movie that I think there’s a chance he’s able to put together a halfway decent film at some point. He definitely has an affinity for Quentin Tarantino by the looks of this film, with Frank and Tommy’s aesthetic giving off heavy Reservoir Dogs vibes, and that’s definitely a good thing. He has an eye for good looking shots. But perhaps he needs a co-writer, an editor or just a better producing team than is offered by Saban Films, who pump out these types of genre films year after year. They’ve found there niche and there is clearly a market for them, so good for them. But at this point, I doubt a breakthrough hit is on the horizon.
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