There's a cracking opening scene to this with Robert Redford, who even after all these years still oozes effortless cool. The promising start continues as Roberts makes way for Jason Segal and Rooney Mara with something resembling a Scani noir. This threw me a bit, as my only other encounter with Segal was in The Muppets... and this is not The Muppets. Unfortunately when Redford returns his next scene is a little phoned in, which is a shame as this is a really interesting story and is told rather well. It's carried by Segal and Mara, as well as the creepy Jesse Plemons from the Fargo TV reboot, who really is excellent and brings a palatable tension to the film. The camera is loose, the colour heavily muted, adding nicely to a growing unease and general bleakness. It's a bit of a trudge though in places and the finale has all the subtlety of a straight to TV movie, but that's being a little cruel as this is really pretty good... even Mr Redford has his moments. I'd love to have seen this as a real Scandi noir though, it feels like it needed to go a shade darker. Slightly surprising perhaps considering this was written a directed by Charlie McDowell, son of Malcolm, who certainly has experience with such things.
6/10
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