In the Electric Mist (2009)

Directed by: Bertrand Tavernier | 102 minutes | crime, drama, thriller | Actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Mary Steenburgen, Kelly Macdonald, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard, Ned Beatty, Justina Machado, Pruitt Taylor Vince, James Gammon, John Sayles, Levon Helm, Gary Grubbs, Louis Herthum, Alana Locke, Julio Cedillo, Buddy Guy, Rio Hackford, Andrea Franklin

‘I am an alcoholic’. With this raw testimony, detective Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones) opens ‘In the Electric Mist’. The camera glides across the landscape, along the beautiful Mississippi to the swamps. The body of a young hooker, Kelly, was found there. The body bag is zipped up and Robicheaux crosses.

Kelly was severely disfigured in the murder. Sadistic motives play a role. A discovery by a film team that happens to be working nearby finds a second corpse, of a Negro, wrapped in chains. Robicheaux immediately recalls an ancient history in which racial aspects played a role. As a boy he witnessed a lynching, the white perpetrators did not know that he had seen and recognized them.

In his search for the perpetrator(s) of the murder, Robicheaux comes across Julie ‘Baby Feet’ Balboni (John Goodman). This old schoolmate is now a gangster producing a movie. In the developments that follow, the consequences of former slavery, the Civil War, the race problem and the reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina are linked by corrupt developers. Robicheaux has few scruples in his research and does not take it too seriously with providing ‘evidence’ or, on the contrary, making it disappear. At one point, he encounters the assistance of an FBI agent.

Director Bertrand Tavernier shifts the accents as the story progresses more and more towards a struggle between guilt and penance. Mix all this with the Cajun culture and the typical lifestyle of the Southern States and you have a nice mix for a film that focuses mainly on creating an atmospheric image. ‘In the Electric Mist’ has not become an easily accessible action film. The slow rhythm is low south. The story contains multiple layers, based in part on spiritual perceptions Dave Robicheaux has as a result of his state of mind. After putting drugs in his drink at a party, he has ‘imaginary’ conversations with a long-dead Civil War general. However, it is not entirely clear whether these are dreams or the consequences of the bad trip, or paranormal perceptions.

Robicheaux himself has great psychological scars from his wartime in Vietnam. He fights unorthodox for finding the truth and against the racial problems that constantly play a role in the background in the developments, but also fights partly against himself and his past. Tommy Lee Jones plays as we can expect. His ‘head’ is convincing, his gaze is gruff and penetrating and looks deep into your soul. However, the danger of repetition of previous similar characters lurks in this casting. Mary Steenburgen plays a less prominent role as his wife Bootsy. Buddy Guy, the famous blues guitarist, can be seen as Sam Patin in a great role.

The camera work is excellent, the atmosphere of the swamps and bayous of Louisiana is sublimely captured. The film is strongly supported by some excellent songs with Cajun music. ‘In the Electric Mist’ is therefore much more of an atmospheric story than a thriller or action film, but due to its layering and its sometimes contemplative mysterious sides, it is an almost classic film noir (in magisterial colours, by the way). However, that does mean that some will find the story a bit difficult to follow.