Texas Killing Fields (2011)

Directed by: Ami Canaan Mann | 105 minutes | drama, thriller, crime | Actors: Jessica Chastain, Chloe Moretz, Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Stephen Graham, Annabeth Gish, Sheryl Lee, Jason Clarke, D’Arcy Allen, Leanne Cochran, Donna Duplantier, Sean Michael Cunningham, Becky Fly, James Hébert, Lyle Brocato

Why is it that a director gets slaps like Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan for her baptism of fire? Maybe it helps that my father is a master of cinema and watches as a producer. Children of famous parents will always be viewed with suspicion. It will be no different for Ami Canaan Mann. Her father is none other than Michael Mann, creator of masterpieces such as ‘Heat’ and ‘The Insider’. Ami delivers a nice but certainly not flawless film with ‘Texas Killing Fields’. But to judge the filmmaker on the basis of her genes would be very unfair.

Strange things are happening in the sweltering Texas hinterland. For quite some time, young women have been disappearing near the mysterious fields, the so-called killing fields. Mike Souder and Brian Heigh are two detectives initially engaged in maintaining public order. However, when they discover a girl’s corpse, Heigh becomes increasingly enthralled by the other unsolved disappearances. This is against the wishes of Souder, who believes they are violating their jurisdiction.

In this print, two major storylines are played off against each other. And that is the great shortcoming of this thriller. The whole thing comes across as muddled and choppy. The abundance of characters who parade around rather dull and half-baked, also seriously throws sand in the gears of rhythm and structure. That’s not exactly Ami Mann’s fault, but a lazy screenwriter’s fault. The fate of a number of characters remains unclear and towards the end the film deflates like a balloon. The final denouement is therefore a mess. The surprise, by the way, has long been betrayed. The cinematography still partially camouflages the flaws of the troubled screenplay. Mann creates an eerie atmosphere that fits perfectly with the grim events. This is immediately a motivation to look further. Indeed, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Now to find a clever script.