Dark Places (2015) Review!!

Synopsis – Libby Day was only seven years old when her family was brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. Twenty-five years later, she agrees to revisit the crime and uncovers the wrenching truths that led up to that tragic night.

My Take – I have always had a soft spot for mystery films where the audience is kept in an atmosphere of mystery & suspense as the finger is pointed on a different character every 15 minutes! While for the past few years most films of the genre failed to captivate, it was David Fincher‘s adaption of Gillian Flynn‘s Gone Girl starring Ben Affleck & Rosamund Pike which broke the mould. Hence there is is no surprise as another novel (while this novel was written prior to Gone Girl) of the same author ended up getting a big screen treatment. What drew me to this film however wasn’t the genre nor the fact that Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult were going to be in this movie together again after their success in Fury Road, but the dark atmosphere (which I really enjoy) quite evident from the trailers. Even though the film doesn’t include the edge of your seat moments or a tight screenplay in comparison to Gone Girl, but still the story manages to captivate you and leaves you in suspense. Luckily as the title suggests, the film is ungodly & sinister while being an entertaining film. What do you expect from a story with a title like that? The story follows Libby Day (Charlize Theron), one of two known survivors of a massacre that took place in 1985 on the family farm in rural Kansas.

The other survivor was her teenage brother, Ben (Tye Sheridan in the flashbacks, Corey Stoll in the present), who the 8-year-old Libby (Sterling Jerins) accused of the murder of his mother & two younger sisters, although it soon becomes clear that her testimony was shaky at best. She’s lived off the life insurance money and donations that many caring people have donated to her, but that money is all gone now and her depression hasn’t allowed her to move on with her life. When a young man named Lyle (Nicholas Hoult) offers her some money to come visit their club, “The Kill Club” she decides to go. They explain to Libby that they are a group of amateur investigators who like to explore unsolved cases. They are convinced her brother is innocent and they offer her more money to begin investigating what happened that tragic night. It’s not easy for Libby to revisit these dark memories of her past which have haunted her, but she begins by visiting her brother in prison. He reminds her of some events that took place during that time and as she begins to investigate we are introduced to several flashbacks of what actually happened. Flashbacks provide further clues, especially when we learn about Ben’s relationship with the rich and unstable Diondra (Chloe Grace Moretz) – something he kept secret from his sisters and mother, Patty (Christina Hendricks), a woman suffering under the weight of four kids and major financial strains. Yet beyond a few opening and closing remarks, Libby’s point of view is mostly absent from Paquet-Brenner’s script, which juggles a half-dozen narrative strands as it hops back and forth between events leading up to the murder and scenes of the older Libby trying to figure out what happened. She’s egged on by Lyle Wirth (Hoult), the creepy-friendly treasurer of a local “Kill Club” whose members obsess over serial killings, family massacres and other such atrocities, trying to finger the true culprits. As with Flynn‘s other tale brought to the cinema, Gone Girl, there is a mystery at the heart of the story that leads to a surprise ending that has been carefully built up but is nonetheless completely unexpected. A constellation of great character actors helps populate this dreary landscape of poverty and despair. And it does end with a note of resolution and hope. Unlike Gone Girl, this movie does not have a major plot twist in the middle. Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner opts for social realism and darkness Which is a good thing, because it keeps the focus on the plot which is thick, and moves at breakneck speed. The past and the present are interwoven seamlessly until the end, which was surprisingly moving! The film does a great job of leading you on myriad paths of misdirection. The audience desperately following leads and evidence to discover the truth of what happened that fateful night in the when a family was brutally murdered, leaving two surviving siblings left standing when the carnage stopped. The multi-layered story is well paced and realistically utilizes real life murders and victims for a believable interpretation of a crime.

Gillian Flynn and her fellow screenwriter of the adaptation, director Gilles Paquet-Brenner, do a marvelous job of refusing to resort to lazy exposition, showing rather than telling. The result is an engaging mystery that garners your full attention in the hopes you might be able to deduce the truth of the heinously bloody murders. Paquet-Brenner has translated the subject matter with cohesively gritty and complementary cinematography. Sure, its has its loop holes here & there, & I would suggest to avoid a comparison to Gone Girl (which is way superior in all forms) as the subject matters are quite different. Even though I would say I am satisfied with the ending, some may consider it a letdown based on the build up & the continuous guessing game of what actually happened! While fans of the novel have been complaining about the casting of Oscar winner Charlize Theron, as she apparently does not match the physicality of Flynn‘s written description. Not knowing this fact, Charlize Theron is flawless as the tortured lead Libby. Her Libby and the medley of supporting characters are gripping and match the brutal content of the film. Her brilliant performance may not get her another Oscar but she has again created a memorable character who suffers and is redeemed. Christina Hendricks is absolutely stellar. Nicholas Hoult, Chloe Grace Moretz, Tye Sheridan & Corey Stoll do a good job in their relatively smaller roles. On the whole, ‘Dark Places‘ may not a tightly constructed screenplay as one would expect from such a film, yet the performances & the mystery manages to hook till the end of its running time. In my opinion, a satisfying tale of mystery that tells of savage desperation and sadistic cold-hearted murder. Given the weak and bland thrillers of recent years that shy away from the truly horrifying callous of human nature, fans of the genre should be pleased.