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BULLITT COUNTY
Director: David McCracken Cast: Mike C. Nelson, Jenni Melear, David McCracken, Napoleon Ryan, Dorothy Lyman, Richard Riehle, Alysia Livingston MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:38 Release Date: 10/26/18 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 25, 2018 There's more buried than just treasure in Bullitt County. This story of four friends, who go looking for a hidden fortune in rural Kentucky, works really hard to give us a comprehensible portrait of its tortured protagonist. Unfortunately, much of that picture depends on the extension of intentional obfuscation, delaying vital information for a series of—by the time they're revealed—not-so-surprising twists. The result is that we spend most of the movie at a distinct distance from all of these characters, especially when they suddenly become violent or appear to go along with the violence. Our sympathy for them is never gained, and by the time everything about this friendship comes into focus, the little sympathy we might have had for one or two of them is completely shattered. The friends are together for Gordie's (Mike C. Nelson) bachelor party. It has been set up by Keaton (writer/director David McCracken) and Robin (Jenni Melear) as an attempt to reclaim the "good old days" of their lives before some tragic event 10 years ago. Gordie has been sober for that amount of time, but Keaton's plan is go on a run of bourbon distilleries in a small Kentucky town. Along for the ride is Wayne (Napoleon Ryan), whose accent and calm demeanor make him stick out from the gang. The rumor is that a local family hid a lot of cash during the Prohibition days, so Gordie convinces his pals to go digging for the treasure on private property. The violence comes unexpectedly, particularly because so many stories of this variety see the backwoods types as the antagonists. The major shift here is that it's Gordie and, to a certain extent, his friends who become the villains, after the couple (played by Dorothy Lyman and Richard Riehle) who owns the land invites the four into their home. Gordie, whose troubled past is the key to the screenplay's assorted and late revelations, is the initiator, but for reasons that only become clear later on, none of the other friends tries to stop him. By the time everything about Gordie comes into focus, we realize that none of this is new to this group. Bullitt County, then, is intended to be a study of guilt, but it's hard to sympathize with characters who have only learned how to cover up their misdeeds. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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