TALL MAN [Blu-ray]

The small town of Cold Rock, Washington—the bleak setting for Pascal Laugier’s (of Martyrs infamy) The Tall Man—has plenty of problems. After the closing of the mine that had been the town’s primary source of employment, Cold Rock has been beset with economic hardship, suffering a lack of resources and rapidly diminishing prospects for its residents. There’s less to go around and people aren’t sure what to do next. Also, the town’s kids keep disappearing—from the streets, front yards, even their own bedrooms. Theories abound. Child molester! The devil! Or maybe it’s the Tall Man, Cold Rock’s resident figure of urban legend: a mysterious man rumored to carry children with him into the woods, after which the boys and girls are never seen again.Nurse Julia Denning (Jessica Biel)—who isn’t originally from these parts—doesn’t believe in urban legends. She’s the only medical practitioner left in Cold Rock after her husband, the town doctor, died several years ago. Yet still she heroically delivers a baby without proper equipment, performs house visits out of concern for the family’s circumstances, and then admirably offers coffee to a grieving mother outside a diner. Later, at home, she nurtures a young boy who she clearly loves. In short, she’s the antithesis of Cold Rock: a caring, generous figure persevering in an atmosphere otherwise devoid of hope. Later that same night, the boy we’ve seen her lovingly bonding with is abducted by a masked figure. So, naturally, she gives chase.What follows is a whirlwind of events building an intricate mystery out of all that we’ve taken for granted so far, eventually culminating in a philosophical stalemate that actually satisfies rather than frustrates. The kidnapper, of course, isn’t the Tall Man, but that doesn’t mean the Tall Man doesn’t exist. Very quickly we realize that Julia isn’t who she seems, that small towns do indeed keep secrets, and that tall tales aren’t so tall when viewed from a distance. Various tropes are deconstructed and challenged: a small town’s suspicion of outsiders; country bumpkins keeping their struggle and rage to themselves, but taking it out on others; the reliance on the supernatural or the mythical to explain a very real phenomenon; and the desperate measures a woman will take to protect her children. Though the film wears its genre trappings on its sleeve, rather than in its heart, the readily apparent tropes speak to something deeper.The idea of Cold Rock, and all that it represents in terms of class and opportunity in America, is central to the unwinding of the film’s tense, provocative conclusion: How inextricably are we tied to where we come from? Who decides if we deserve better, and if we deserve it, how do we actually get it? “The system is broken,” says one character in a pivotal monologue about hope and limitations, a seemingly endless cycle of defeat in which people always want more without knowing how to get it. Maybe Cold Rock is broken, or maybe it’s just lost, but the film deftly explores the state of the town in the context of a piece of the world struggling to keep from being left behind. What was the future actually holding for the children of Cold Rock, anyway? The Tall Man illustrates the problem of class mobility with a dark, troubling premise that holds a harsh light up to our own assumptions and expectations through a process of revising what we thought we saw—and, in doing so, the film asks how much else might be hidden.Blacks are solid, colors are muted and the palette tends toward the cool end of the spectrum, as befits the name of the town, except for a few places where warmth still prevails, like Julia's home. Even Jessica Biel, who took an executive producer credit, forgoes any star lighting or glamorous makeup; she blends in with the rest of the townspeople, their vitality visibly sapped by the town's economic depression and the loss of so many children.Optional English and Spanish subtitles.

A town in decline due to the closure of the mine, so those left could be considered trailer park trash, with illegitimate kids certainly around. The town has had lots of children disappear, and they have termed it kidnaping by the “Tall Man”. The future of the town and its people is not bright. There is a ‘message’ at the end of the movie which seems to really trouble people and results in low ratings. My rating is more based on how the movie was put together, did it have strengths or weaknesses, or were there plot holes big enough to drive a truck through?A couple of real flaws marred this movie. David (child) is kidnaped and the Jessica Biel character (Julia) chases after him. She is beset by dogs from the kidnaper, and then winds up in the back of a truck, with a menacing dog. The truck winds up overturning, and she is able to escape. What about the dog? And in a later scene, she escapes in the back of the sheriff’s car, except that one cannot get out of the rear seat door from the inside, which she did. These errors were really unforced, although being in the back of the sheriff’s car did lead to a major plot point and she could not have gotten there any other way available to her. The towns people were on a hunt to kill her, which was a new plot point to the movie.The attitude of the towns people to Julia is a puzzle, as she is a nurse supposedly helping people. That said, at about the half way point of the movie, there seemed to be a large disclosure, and it seemed that the rest of the movie would be predictable. Well, I was completely wrong, and there were a lot of twists and turns. And this is why I feel the movie is underappreciated and some focus only on the moral of the tale, if that could be what it is. Four stars may be a bit generous, but three would be too low in my opinion.

I’ll just say 4 stars bc of the twisty plot. I enjoyed that there were twists and turns and they were all quite unexpected.Now there’s a lot of bad reviews already which contain spoilers so I won’t go into that all—but basically I agree with them. My thought overall is like, if someone said I won a Porsche and I was excited and all kinds of thrilled, but on delivery day, he shows up with a busted up old Pinto—not even a sweet vintage-but a broke down taped together pile of junk, I’d be like “Porsche???! Where’s my Porsche?” And the dude tries man-splaining that this is so much better and is fuel efficient, etc...but I’m still sad...”Porsche?:(“ That’s my metaphor for this film. It tries selling u one genre of movie and turns out to be something else entirely. I can’t entirely hate on it bc the twists are so complicated and surprising that it does stay an interesting film. However being deliberately misled isn’t cool. Plus the overall message and theme, once you get through all the twisted plot issues, turn it into nothing more than a glorified Lifetime movie with some stupid message about how certain people know what’s best for everyone. That’s as much as I’ll say so if you haven’t seen it yet and wanna try to enjoy it, you can...the other reviews have given the plot away so there’s that.I think the gimmick of branding a movie one way when it’s actually not, is a really lousy way to promote it. Yes it makes the surprise twists that much more powerful but if I came expecting a monster, I want a monster—just like if I won a Porsche I want a Porsche not a Pinto!I had to give this film 4 stars tho simply for the plot being twisty and hard to keep up with. There’s some excellent drama and stuff you’d find in a horror or thriller movie. The acting is great too. I like that all the actors took on their roles and really owned them. So for all these reasons, I had to give it 4 stars. But if you’re a ‘horror movie’ fan, I’d say it’s 1-star in that genre. It’s less monster and more metaphor.Not a bad film overall once u know it’s not in the horror-genre, and def worth a look if you can overlook the preachy Lifetime movie quality it takes on towards the end.

Good acting from Biel in this suspense thriller involving the mysterious disappearance of children in a small town. The big twist awaits and does not become apparent until the end. It is a nice enjoyable fil if one likes crime thrillers.

At first posing as a supernatural thriller, the twist turns out to be just as haunting and very much more real. Jessica Biel owns this roost.

Good movie that has you on the edge of your seat.

Arrived quickly...really enjoyed this film...it's not what you think is happening..good acting by Jessica Biel

No subtitles so no good to me