In The Electric Mist (With Confederate Dead)

Introduction

 
There's a serial killer on the loose in the post-Hurricane Katrina world of New Iberia, Louisiana, targeting young prostitutes.  Veteran detective Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones) is on the case but getting nowhere fast. 
 
Things are a little complicated by the presence of a Hollywood film crew, in the area to film a Civil War epic.  Robicheaux then arrests leading actor Elrod Sykes (Peter Sarsgaard) for drunk driving in his rather flash sports car with actress girlfriend Kelly Drummond (Kelly MacDonald).  Attempting to persuade the detective to let him off, Sykes mentions that he and the film crew found the decomposed remains of a chained man.  This reawakens memories in the lawman of a murder that he witnessed as a child that was dismissed by the law at the time.
 
Robicheaux thinks that ex-pal and now enemy 'Baby Feet' Balboni (John Goodman), the local crime kingpin who is also part-financing the film and starts investigating in his own rather upfront close and personal style, leaving bodyguards on the floor covered in bruises.  Then the lawman starts to see the ghost of a Confederate General who gives him advice and seems to point him in the right direction…
 

Visual

 
Good picture with the swamplands of Louisiana looking particularly good.
 

Audio

 
Rather disappointing soundtrack which doesn't make a lot of use of the surrounds at all and in fact the volume in general is too low.  The fact that there are no subtitles doesn't help either…
 

Extras

 
None, this is a little disappointing even if this is a straight to disc job…
 

Overall

 
This is a rather bizarre film, adapted from the bestseller In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke.  My understanding is that this version of the film is severely edited and that there are approx. twenty odd minutes still out there on the cutting room floor that could and should have been included.
 
This cull of the finished film, supposedly as the US market wouldn't have understood it, part explains why this film feels so disjointed with the story jumping in places with no explanation.  That said, I still sort of enjoyed it.  It has an authentic Southern US feel to it with a good solid cast that also includes Mary Steenburgen as Robicheaux's other half and also features cameo's from Levon Helm and Buddy Guy.
 
The final scene is rather bizarre but apparently the book actually explains how that worked quite adequately but is rather strange in the least in the context of the finished film.  Still, taking advice on a modern murder case from a military man who has been dead for nearly 150 years is just as strange.
 
Not great, badly edited and very disjointed but oddly enjoyable anyway…