A Single Shot


I was able to see A Single Shot at a Gathr preview, at the Maple Theater, and I was excited to see it because Sam Rockwell was fantastic earlier this year in The Way, Way Back. However, this film was slow-moving and noir-ish - actually almost Hitchcock-esque - and it proved to be a little too slow for my taste.

John Moon (Rockwell) lives by himself in a trailer in a wooded area of town. He likes to hunt, and one day he realizes, to his horror, that he has shot a human instead of the deer at which he was aiming. He hides the woman's body under a tarp, but realizes there was is a large sum of money in a paper bag next to the woman. John decides to give some of the money to his estranged wife, for her and her son, but he doesn't realize other people know he has the money, including town lawyer Pitt (William H. Macy), who is helping with John's possible divorce. His friend Simon (Jeffrey Wright), too, is hiding a secret from John, and soon enough everyone's secrets will be out in the open.

Even though I didn't entirely like this movie, Sam Rockwell was great in it. He was almost unrecognizable under layers of beard, with a Southern accent, too, and I'm sure he will be lauded for his role in this movie. William H. Macy was easily identifiable but other A-listers in this film were not: Melissa Leo, the ultimate chameleon (I never realize she's in certain movies until I see her listed on their IMDb listing); Jeffrey Wright, also bearded; and Ophelia Lovibond (Mr. Popper's Penguins) as a neighbor of John's.

Maybe see this film. Overall I thought the movie was interesting, but it was way too slow to keep my attention throughout. I thought the cinematography was beautiful, however, as the film takes place in a rural area, presumably the South based on accents. The music throughout was sufficiently creepy as well,  keeping me on edge during the entire film, and reminded me a lot of an old Hitchcock movie, actually, in that anything could - and does - happen. A Single Shot is definitely an indie film, as well, and sometimes indies are hard to understand or interpret. If you can stomach the slowness of the movie, however, this might be one to see in the theater.

A Single Shot is in theaters on September 20th and is already available on-demand through Comcast, and is rated R with a runtime of 116 minutes. 3 stars out of 5.

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