In the Electric Mist *** (2009, Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard, Mary Steenburgen, Kelly Macdonald, Justina Machado, Ned Beatty, James Gammon) – Classic Movie Review 4624

Tommy Lee Jones is at his excellent haunted best in a tailor-made role as Dave Robicheaux, a Louisiana cop who finds a connection between the New Orleans murder of a prostitute and the discovery of a long-dead body of an African-American man in a swamp. As life gets hard, Jones ends up talking to dead Confederate officers, like you do.

Esteemed veteran French director Bertrand Tavernier (Round Midnight) delivers a classy, well-crafted thriller, packed with tension and doomy atmosphere, and you can almost smell the bayou and the stench of the rotting past in this weird, hypnotic tale based on a popular novel (the sixth in a series) by James Lee Burke – full title In the Electric Mist with the Confederate Dead.

There is a bit of action and violence, but this is more of a mystery crime drama than a thriller. Yes, Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski’s screenplay is talky . So you have just got to sit back and listen, picking up on the clues with Jones as he goes along.

If the mystery in the end perhaps isn’t that surprising, the film makes the journey to its revelation seem worthwhile. In the distinguished cast, Peter Sarsgaard again stands out as a hard-boozing movie star, Elrod Sykes. Also in the cast are John Goodman as Julie ‘Baby Feet’ Balboni, Mary Steenburgen as Bootsie Robicheaux, Kelly Macdonald as Kelly Drummond, Justina Machado, Ned Beatty, James Gammon, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Levon Helm. 

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4624

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