A Single Shot will be forever known as David M. Rosenthal’s work starring Sam Rockwell and depicts an interesting but nihilistic representation of white trash living class with the flavor of neo-noir that works beautifully in some areas but disappoints in others.
The film is based on the 2011 crime suspense novel of the same name by Matthew F. Jones, who also wrote the screenplay Matthew F. Jones, and stars Sam Rockwell as John Moon. It tells the story of a man, John Moon, a broke hunter living in a remote town, who goes deer hunting one day, but does not come back the same when he accidentally kills a young lady instead. Having buried the dead little girl’s body, John finds a box of money in the same vicinity which he decides to use to hire a lawyer (William H. Macy) to help him after a divorce from his wife Ed (Kelly Reilly) who leaves no stone unturned to make him pay.
Needless to say, obviously, there would have to be some consequences as there is a dead girl and the bag of cash is missing and this attracts John towards a group of drug dealing gangsters who wants revenge on him.
Because A Single Shot, features a remarkable performance by Rockwell which is evidently superior to any of the material he works with. That said, I refuse to praise the leftover intuitively gauged parts of this creation. At this time in his career, there’s no denying the formidable talent and the flexibility of the man, but in this he manages to actually rise above the material in a way that most actors couldn’t. It’s not his best performance, certainly, but one gets the impression that he tries hard with every scene he has, be it talking to some locals or just sitting on the porch, doing nothing. There is also the fact that he displays a real backwoods accent, which is quite crucial in a movie that seeks to set itself in the deep south.
However, with regards to most of the other actors, the opposite is true; they appear to be better as one-off characters whose presence in this show could be compared to secondary day players of True Blood. Now, that is particularly the case about Jeffrey Wright’s Simon, who unions New York’s John. Even when he is portrayed as a soaked and rugged hillbilly, there are less than three sentences from him that one would understand clearly. Exactly the same applies to the disheartening performance of Jason Isaacs who played Waylon, the villain of the movie. He also did not seem to be that aggressive in the role and portrayed too few emotions out of which we have known him in the previous roles.
Macy performs better, both in the film and as an actor than Wright and Isaacs, and he ably plays the hyperactive lawyer Pitt. As well, Ted Levine has a short in the picture, but plays John’s tough teacher, the character of Cecil, in a convincingly pokered fashion. Leaving aside the acting, it’s obvious that A Single Shot’s most glaring weakness is the screenplay. Although, one can buy into the motivational challenge of John, the development of events is quite boring and not so clear, especially regarding the middle of the movie. Also, the drug syndicate subplot time also comes across as forced and rather cliché and considering the setup, not much happens from then to the escalating incident to the film’s climax. It is mostly John’s prying and hidden instead of dangerous voodoo which brings the movement. Nonetheless, there is a certain appeal to some of that mountain ‘man speak’ – that is when you can forward it – and Rosenthal’s peers are commercialously Grim Quality, which was suitable for the film. Verdict A Single Shot Cast further fosters Sam Rockwell as a needy, degraded man looking for a sunset with a good story in “A” broad head. The setup is gripping with intense moments right from the start, however, just as it seems to build to a well earned and well deserved climax, suddenly everything fades away and what is left is an overabundance of visual pictures anchored by reckless, barren eyed direction and a complete lack of plot. It is, however, worth mentioning that the culminated hero still manages to overcome the standard for film plots.
Watch free movies on Fmovies
