There’s not often a second the place the solar isn’t oppressively shining in writer-director Jeffrey Reiner’s Lake George. Tactfully captured by cinematographer Tod Campbell, it’s the sort of gentle that unveils the additional it lingers on one thing, whether or not it’s beating in opposition to the asphalt of the SoCal highways or piercing by shabby resort blinds. Lake George is a research of contrasts on this method, usually opposing the illumination of the panorama with the inside wickedness and secrets and techniques of its flawed however earnest characters. Discovering a option to harmonize its meditations and thrilling moments, it shades its thrills with the existential musings one may get from a street journey film. It’s all tied collectively by stellar turns from Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon, who shade throughout the strains of acquainted character archetypes however achieve this with adroit self-awareness and disarming type.
The movie focuses on Whigham’s Don, an insurance coverage adjuster launched from jail after ten years and who is keen to show his life round. As he telephones his earlier contacts, they both don’t choose up, refuse to assist him, or he learns they’ve handed away. With nobody left to show to, he goes to the Armenian gangster Arman (Glenn Fleshler), for whom he did some white-collar crime. Arman owes Don $50,000 however making the most of Don’s desperation, Arman says he’ll solely give him the cash if he “takes care of” his girlfriend, Coon’s Phyllis, who Arman feels is getting too bold and cocky for her personal good.
Whereas Don finds and captures Phyllis, he fairly actually can’t deliver himself to tug the set off. As he spirals, tortured that his alternative to start out a brand new life is hindered by his incapability to commit an act of violence, Phyllis means that the 2 be part of forces to steal Arman’s cash, which has been stashed all through the area. Don begrudgingly accepts, and the 2 embark on a Robin Hood-inspired street journey, fueled by their frequent enemy.
A lot of the movie takes place on the street the place Don and Phyllis bicker and bond between heists. It’s a delight to see Whigham and Coon work together, a lot of the humor and rigidity coming from seeing how they maintain such radically completely different views on life however are saddled collectively by circumstance. Whigham has by no means been higher right here, unafraid to embody somebody attempting to stay in management at the same time as they know they’re out of depth. There’s a continual weariness he wears on his face, and we by no means know whether or not that masks a deeper energy or if he’ll merely let the overwhelming nature of his circumstances inhibit him from additional motion.
Coon compliments Whigham’s loud facial expressions by being a chameleon, adopting the pores and skin of a damsel in misery solely to then use docility as a canopy to strike at a second least anticipated. Coon’s character can swap between worry and annoyance to shrewdness inside a breath, however there’s an undercurrent of assured resolve that programs all through.
The best way Whigham and Coon can flit between quite a lot of dynamics can also be what retains the movie coursing with sudden and cackling power: is there romantic rigidity or have they got extra of a sibling dynamic? Or maybe might the older Don as an alternative be viewing Phyllis by a paternal lens? Whigham and Coon function at numerous registers and seize the ways in which strangers can usually know us in more true methods than our closest household and buddies, because the excessive stakes the characters discover themselves in reveals a deeper fact about oneself.
Simply because the exposing solar contrasts with the hidden motives of the movie’s characters, Reiner finds equal enjoyment of mixing the macabre and comedic. That is maybe no higher exemplified than in a scene the place Don and Phyllis attempt to stage a photograph to make it look like Don killed Phyllis. Between Don not determining get the digicam settings to work to Phyllis being dissatisfied with the ratio of blood on her garments, it’s a humorous sequence the place the grandiose nature of 1’s schemes clashes with the messy logistics of implementation; within the scene prior, we see Phyllis and Don seize provides from an Ace Ironmongery store.
It’s the kind of blatant model advertising that I may need rolled my eyes at in one other film given how lengthy the digicam lingers on the shop’s emblem. However within the context of Lake George, it speaks to the normalcy and scrappiness of those characters and the desperation of what they’ll do to outlive. Rene G. Boscio’s rating additionally embodies these dualities, tender when it must be, however with simply sufficient hints of discordance, as if it holds a knife beneath its heat.
A mixture of stunning violence, lovely landscapes, and endearing performances, Lake George reminds us that generally, the individuals who see our truest selves are these strangers we’ve bonded with by a shared circumstance. But tucked between its on-screen perils is a message concerning the hope of redemption and recent begins, irrespective of one’s previous.
Abstract
‘Lake George’ boasts stunning violence, lovely landscapes, and endearing performances, significantly from Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham.
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