The Tall Man

Just to clear things up this is not about the dude from Phantasm played by Angus Scrimm.  Although that would be cool if he got his own devoted movie. 

Anyway, if you haven’t seen The Tall Man and don’t want to read the spoiler filled paragraphs below then I guess I recommend it.  I’m really on the fence about it though.  Once you finally get the full picture it’s kinda disappointing but the journey there is interesting.  I like to think of it more as an experiment in storytelling.  It’ll hopefully make for some good conversation between you and your buds.

Spoilers from here on

Still here?  Ok.  The payoff doesn’t make sense.  The idea is to take children away from their shitty homes and parents and give them better lives, right?  As Jessica Biel puts it: to “break the cycle”.  But what couple or adult would go with this program?  Why not adopt a kid from an orphanage?  I mean it’s not like they’re living the sweet life over there.  But then I know you’re gonna say, “well maybe the people who applied got rejected and couldn’t adopt so they had to go this other route”.  I think that’s bullshit though.  If an adoption agency thinks a couple or a person’s home is unsuitable for a child then why would this secret organization give them a kid either?  The point is to greatly improve the child’s situation and not just transfer him/her from one shitty family to another.  This underground group has dignity.  They don’t steal children and give them new lives for money.  It’s a cause for them.  But how could you look at adopting a child from an orphanage as not helping?  Those kids need good homes too.  So I don’t get it.  Who the fuck would use this secret society?

Laugier certainly tried to make something different here and he succeeded even if it doesn’t quite add up.  He labors so hard to make you think you’re watching a typical horror/thriller picture but then when he turns the tables on you and you see it from this different angle it doesn’t really work.  It’s too messy.  Like one mother convinces half the town that Jessica Biel stole her child even though she has no proof and Biel seems like a nice and very pleasant person, the kid that Biel steals seems really happy and doesn’t appear to be frightened or confused which you would think would be the case ‘cause he was like taken from his mother and home, and why did Biel feel she needed to stay behind and take the heat?  She could’ve disappeared with her husband and be off in some other part of the country continuing this kidnapping gig which she believes strongly in.  She had plenty of time to get away.

I think the thing I found most disappointing was that this isn’t a horror movie.  Once the twist was revealed I thought Biel was the one chopping these kids up.  And I think I would’ve found that more satisfying than this convoluted adoption scheme.

Like I said, if anything this one makes for some interesting conversation.  If this was reworked and simplified it has the potential to be a masterpiece, Hitchockian in its inventiveness with the thriller genre.

Well I look forward to Pascal Laugier’s next movie.  He’s got some good ideas on how to freshen things up in these typical ol’ stories.  He just needs to give the secret society thing a rest for a while.