By SHAWN MACOMBER
Starring Minka Kelly, Dermot Mulroney, and Maggie Grace
Directed by Jeff Celentano
Written by Elizabeth Fowler
Lionsgate
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive,” Sir Walter Scott famously averred in his epic poem “Marmion.”
After a viewing of BLACKWATER LANE – a psychological thriller that is at turns a dizzying snare of individual strands and a web so perfectly delineated it makes Charlotte’s pig-penmanship look like chicken scratch – one might whisper to the ghost of the Ivanhoe author, “Brother, you have no idea.”
You know, life should actually be pretty easy for Cass (Minka Kelly). She lives in a mansion on a lush, beautiful English estate (can you guess the address?) with her ruggedly handsome (if prickly) husband, Matthew (Oh, hey! What’s up Dermot Mulroney?). And though she’s a teacher with some dedicated (obsessed?) students, Cass appears to be settling into a leisurely life of posh dinner parties, brunches, and tennis.
Alas, driving home one dark and stormy night, down the titular road, Cass comes upon an idling car – belonging to a woman she recently met, in fact – parked on the shoulder. However, her acquaintance does not seem to be in distress or signaling for help, so she drives on.
That will prove a fateful decision.
The motorist is dead. (An extreme cure for distress, sure, but an effective one nonetheless.) Is there a serial killer in paradise? Will Cass be a tempting target for them now that she’s possibly seen too much?
This would be plot enough for a feature. BLACKWATER LANE, however, continues to spin its web: Cass not only begins to experience what she believes to be supernatural attacks but also, her husband and her best friend (Maggie Grace) keep insisting she did and said things she does not recall doing or saying – so much so that she and a local detective begin to suspect she may be the perpetrator of the murder, not the killer’s next target. “C’mon, Cass,” Matthew tells her. “Your imagination does get a little bit out there sometimes.”
The same could be said for screenwriter Elizabeth Fowler (adapting a novel by B.A. Paris) and director Jeff Celentano. There is a lot going on here. Is this a ghost story? A supernatural thriller? A serial killer crime drama? A film about a nefarious gaslighter in the guise of the lover or the best friend? Will a tennis instructor and nerdy outcast tween student help save the day? Or are they part of the cabal?
Honestly, I don’t think anyone would love this film if they paid eighteen bucks to see it in a theater, but it’s all good (but not super-cohesive) fun… If you don’t mind being tossed around in a Lifetime Channel-esque narrative rock tumbler. Kelly and Grace bring the multidimensionality necessary to sell the suspense and Mulroney performs that balancing act of menace and everyman charm that he similarly pulled off in the last Scream film.
Is it tied up a little too neatly with an expository dialogue-heavy ending? Well, yeah. It’s difficult to see what else could be done with this many open cans of worms. Set your expectations appropriately and what’s good enough for Cass will likely be good enough for you.
