“Lake George”
R/Comedy/Drama/118 Mins
Directed & Written by: Jeffery Reiner
Starring: Shea Whigham (“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning”), Carrie Coon (“The Gilded Age”), Max Casella (“Tulsa King”), Glenn Fleshler (“Joker”), Ashley Fink (“Glee”), Troy Metcalf (“Babylon”), Joey Oglesby (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Derek Phillips (“Friday Night Lights”) and Keri Safran (“Blue Bloods”)
Review: Shortly after being released from serving a 10 year prison sentence, down-on-his-luck Don, needs money. Cashing in a favor he’s owed, he reaches out to gangster Armen for the money he deserves. Unfortunately, Armen doesn’t want to pay up unless Don carries out a “hit” on Armen’s wife, Phillis. The problem is, Don has never harmed anyone and doesn’t plan on to. Reluctantly, the “hesitant hit-man” kidnaps Phillis and when it comes down to the moment, he’s unable to follow through. As a result, a very pissed off Phillis has the idea of them teaming up to take down Armen by stealing all his money and gold from his secret properties. Along the way, Don and Phillis start to form a bond, and their plan to get rich is starting to look up…minus the part with the handful of dead bodies that fall in their wake.
The aspect that I enjoyed the most was the casting of the two leads. As a huge fan of Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon, seeing them as a part of the cast was the number one reason I made this film a priority to watch at the Austin Film Festival. Whigham always does a great job playing the serious straight man in most films he’s in. Here it meshes perfectly with Carrie’s more comedic, unpredictable approach which makes for an entertaining “odd couple” situation. I admire how the film never had the intention to make this dynamic duo love interests. It was refreshing to just have them settle on being two very different personalities that bond and become confidants within each other.
This unusual dynamic leads to some big laughs when they start ripping off Armen’s safe houses. Each stop becomes more disastrous than the last. This is when the characters you find endearing start to become gray areas when it comes to morals as it leads to some dark humored-violence/situations.
The tone of this film really reminded me of early Coen Brothers’ films. Pitch black humor mixed with bloody violence. However, it felt more like Coen-lite. What I mean by this was the underwhelming story. It held my interest for most of the runtime, but the story and the way it played felt very unspectacular and just okay. Which is unfortunate when you have great actors and a so-so script.
I will say towards the end it did start to take turns I didn’t expect, but by the time the film reaches that point, the film’s pacing comes to a halt and the energy is drained and dragged all the way to the finish line. I walked out of the theater with some disappointment. I knew I watched a pretty decent film, yet I don’t see this film staying with me or one I will think about much.
Score: 6/10
“Lake George” comes out in theaters on December 6th.
