A Lukewarm Cold War Thriller

The ambition exceeds the expertise as a writer and director Phil Blattenberger‘S”laws of man“, whose meandering plot ends up feeling like a wild car chase – one whose execution should have been, well, wilder. The action and atmosphere are too sparse for this attempt at a noir-retro thriller to feel anything but talky, awkward and unconvincing. Set in 1963, it takes a major narrative leap toward the end, approaching deliberately over-the-top Cold War paranoia fantasies like “Dr. Strangelove” and “Winter Kills”. But the satirical touch that could have accomplished this move is absent throughout, resulting in an overall picture that’s odd without ever being particularly compelling. Saban will release the feature film in U.S. theaters, digital platforms and on-demand platforms on January 10th.

US Marshals Frank (Jacob Keohane) and Tommy (Jackson Rathbone) are based in the state capital Carson City and have driven 15 hours to the remotest desert area of ​​Nevada to arrest Crash Mooncalf (Richard Brake) and his criminal gang. A shootout ensues in which none of their prey survives – and the differences between these unlikely law enforcement officers become clear.

Frank is a stern guy whose rigidity stems in part from his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder from military service in World War II, shown in brutal flashbacks. In contrast, the younger Tommy is a trigger-happy “cowboy” who is drawn to any available wine and women and ignores all established protocols. When they find a dusty motel for the night, Tommy quickly hooks up with an impossibly glamorous lady in red (Ashley Gallegos as Dinah), who angrily insists that she’s not a prostitute… and then charges $20 for the night anyway. After an idle chat with the bartender Callie (Kelly Lynn Reiter), Frank simply retreats to his room, where he is, as usual, plagued by battle nightmares.

The next day they have to serve another arrest warrant. This time the recipient is local rancher Benjamin Bonney (Dermot Mulroney), who, along with his brutal sons, is suspected of murdering anyone in the area who won’t give him their own land. Once again our heroes are greeted with a shootout, but this time the duo manage to get inside – only to find the grinning Bonneys there, who inform them that the arrest warrant has been revoked, which a phone call confirms.

Clearly there is some kind of conspiracy going on here to protect these culprits. Although they are no longer officially on the case, the disgruntled marshals decide to stick around and get to the bottom of the matter. Significant characters who later appear include an FBI agent with whom Tommy fought in the Korean War (Christopher El), his icy superior (Keith Carradine) and a foreign scientist (Chase Gutzmore) working on a top secret project.

Aside from a wasted Graham Greene as the county sheriff, the scenery-chewing, veteran name actors don’t seem to be taking things very seriously – least of all Harvey Keitel as an old coot in an RV “preacher’s van” who seems to have come over from another film. Unfortunately, the lead actors and other young actors have to act the film straight, which doesn’t benefit them. The pseudo-hard-boiled dialogue delivered to them is all too often stilted, the behaviors and situations tense. The often absurdly trigger-happy characters fire so many shots that they have so little noticeable impact on those around them that it’s almost as if the film doesn’t want you to forget that they’re just actors shooting blanks – they might as well say with a wagging finger, “Pew! Bank! Bank!”

It doesn’t help that “Laws of Man,” even within the modest confines of its rural setting and limited cast, conveys the period very sloppily. Is it so hard to convince an actor who played a federal agent 60 years ago to get a more appropriate haircut than what might be described as “early ’90s Brad Pitt”? Many such distracting details undermine a plausibility that Blattenberger doesn’t even create.

There are so many left turns in his script that one wonders if the director was intending a freer, more surreal journey at some point before budget constraints and other factors curbed his vision. But the finished product feels relatively humorless, making the cast seem goofy in scenes that might have flown had they been played as dry comedy – not a tenor achieved or even seemingly aimed for here.

Likewise, the pedestrian design contributions keep “Laws of Man” from reaching a higher level, as Daniel Troyer’s cinematography and Ching-Shan Chang’s original score reflect the basic B-movie prowess of yesteryear, without any sense of style or irony. “Laws of Man” finally tackles something you wouldn’t quite expect. But the path to get there is so often hapless that the goal ends up being just another idea that lacks the resources or skills to properly implement.