wtmerrett
While I did feel this had a good story to tell and interesting perspective, it missed the mark. The characters were not developed enough for us to care about them. A huge mistake that many screenwriters make. Let us like or hate the characters but tell us something about them. The director or script had the characters do and say things that the character would not do or say in that particular scene. When Liza and Jay are in the pub after the roads get closed, she goes out to his truck and immediately goes into his pack to get his address from letters there. How did she know these were there or that there was a pack in the first place? No shot of the pack was shown to the audience to establish this fact. Is she clairvoyant? Then the little girl in the cabin scene with Addison when he kills the stepfather and saves the mother and kids, says something that appeared to be out of left field and once again, made no sense. This went on and on during the movie. Liza and Jay are just getting to know each other in the truck and the pub when all or a sudden he is dancing with her and falling in love. Not in real life anyway. I can understand that a guy just out of prison would want to sleep with the girl as soon as possible but next morning when he see's her about to get into the semi truck of another guy, he runs out half naked to stop her and pledges his affection. Once again, Really, makes no sense for his character. He would have pulled on his clothes and driven away happy to had had the night he had.The set decoration was an issue as well to me. Having been a Set Decorator in movies I pay attention to this stuff. In the motel attached to the little backwoods pub there are stylish grey sheets on the bed. Are you kidding? What backwoods motel owner is going to splash out on expensive sheets for the rental rooms when cheap white will suffice. The pub also had a stage area for bands and during the day scene there was instruments on stage as if there was a band there. Really? During the day when the roads have been closed due to the storm, a band is going to be working there? No band was established or heard, and no pub owner is going to buy instruments on spec just in case someone with a musical bent just happens by. This kind of mistake just takes away from the story for me and I miss what's going on as I am now annoyed at the Director or Decorator for these glaring errors.There was a missing scene at the end of the movie that was required to wrap thing up. The movie ended without doing this wrap up and we are left to ask what happened. Did Hanna become an FBI agent or stay in Minnesota as a County Sheriff. A final hospital scene where her father, Sheriff Becker thanks her and says she will make a great FBI Agent would go a long way to finishing things up.All in all it was not a bad movie and not a complete waste of time but it could have been a great movie if more time was spent on development and attention to detail.One other thing that confuses me is the listing of actors credits on IMDb. Why was Kate Mara listed waaaay down in amongst the one-line cast when she was so much more then a single line actor in this picture?
blanche-2
How revolting is it to see actors like Eric Bana, Charlie Hunnan, Sissy Spacek, and Treat Williams in something like "Deadfall"? Revolting.This is strictly a film for Neanderthal males. Bana and Olivia Wilde play criminal siblings, Addison and Liza, who have just made a huge score when they're in an accident in the middle of a bad snowstorm. The driver dies. Liza grabs the money, and she and Addison take off. At Addison's request, they split up. Liza hitches a ride with a paroled prisoner (Charlie Hunnam), a former Olympic boxer who is on his way home to see his parents (Kris Kristofferson and Sissy Spacek) and have Thanksgiving. When she learns the address of his parents' house, she leaves a message for Addison, who is holed up in a hunting cabin with a mother, a baby, and a young child, after killing her abusive father. It's not his first murder - at the accident scene, he shoots the police officer who shows up.The third situation we track in this film is the work of the police, mostly Kate Mara as Hanna Becker, the sheriff's daughter.Note to self: Find out what else Zach Dean wrote and avoid it.This particular storyline is ridiculous. The male police are absolutely horrible to Hanna -- and she's the sheriff's daughter. It doesn't matter because the sheriff (Treat Williams) is worse. He tells her he can't let her go and hunt for the murderer of the officer because what if she has to change a tampon? Hanna by now seems immune to this kind of treatment - unfortunately it's new to the viewer. When she wants to call for backup, a fellow cop takes her walkie-talkie and throws it away. She's pushed into the snow and the cops steal her snowmobile. She's blamed for everything. In spite of this, she pays no attention to any of them and forges ahead. When was this thing written - the 1930s?There was a lot of blood, shooting, the cutting off of fingers, that sort of thing. And so much of the film was preposterous - how did Liza not die of hypothermia wearing next to nothing and violently shaking when she gets into the truck. Some truck - before you know it, in order to seduce this guy to take her to his parents', she partially removes her coat so he can get a better look.Meanwhile, her brother heads for Jay's parents' house, too.Then there was Sissy Spacek, with a rifle being held on her by a total stranger, asking Addison to open a window when he lights a cigarette. Yeah and I suppose that would happen. Also, no matter how many shots you fired at Addison, you either never hit him, or if you did, he just got back up. Also I think Addison had an incestuous thing for Liza, as he goes totally berserk when Jay says he loves her. I do hope when Jay realizes she was just using him, he falls out of love with her, but with this movie, you don't know.The acting was great - Eric Bana has always been a wonderful actor, capable of very dramatic roles, and this was one. Sissy Spacek, with her serene face, can be sweet but turn ugly in a minute, which she does here. Charlie Hunnam is sympathetic in his role as a man who once had a promising career and feels his father now hates him. Olivia Wilde is beautiful and appropriately seedy as Addison's sister. As for Treat Williams, a very good actor, he didn't have a huge role. One of the lucky ones.
obriekat
This movie explicitly states that they are in northern Michigan (the upper peninsula) and all I could think about the entire time was how terrible and unrealistic everyone's accents were. Disappointing because it subtracted from the quality of the movie. Details like that aren't trivial and I'm wondering why they chose to have a police Captain who sounds like he's from Boston, Charlie Hunnam who has a weird "American" accent that just sounds off for some weird reason, and Australian Eric Bana speaking like he's from Alabama.... Just odd choices all around. On a positive note, the film kept my attention and unfolded at a nice pace. It has pretty scenery. The violence is graphic enough to make you cringe but is realistic. Over all I give it a "B".
