I saw Ami Canaan Mann‘s Texas Killng Fields sometime in late August, and now it’s opening this Friday (10.14) via Anchor Bay. I’ve noted before that the costars are Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (who gives the best performance), Jessica Chastain, Chloe Moretz, Stephen Graham and Jason Clarke.

I don’t what to say or where to start, but I can say one thing in summation. It wasn’t that good or satisfying, but at the same time I didn’t feel badly burned.

“I think it’s basically a very intriguing, misshapen mess,” I told a colleague some time ago. “Not enough of a story, some odd coverage, and not long or complex enough to be a Zodiac-styled cold case movie, which I would have been down for. The tone lacks a commanding vision, a consistent aesthetic. It feels raggedy, and yet an intriguing kind of raggedy. It was obviously made by talented people looking do something extra…and not quite getting there.

“All the performances have something or other. All the leads are watchable and interesting. It’s atmospheric and creepy but…HELLO? It doesn’t go anywhere. And it leave you hanging besides, especially regarding a character who seems to be the most malevolent bad guy (Clarke, last in Public Enemies). He just shoots [a character I won’t name] and then disappears….what?

As it happened I met and spoke with Clarke at a party last weekend, and he said that the TKFshoot ran out of time and/or money, at least to the extent that certain pages weren’t shot. Clarke is now working on Baz Luhrman‘s 3D The Great Gatsby. He’s playing George Wilson, the working-class character who plugs Jay Gatsby in the back at the very end. Scott Wilson played him in the 1974 version.