BLOW THE MAN DOWN

This black comedy thriller, set in a dead-end fishing town called Easter Cove, has two linked plots, both involving a violent death.

In the first, young Mary Beth, somewhat intoxicated on the day of her mother's funeral, kills a creepy lowlife by the name of Gorski, using first a harpoon, followed by a brick for good measure.  By way of mitigating circumstances she was freaked out by some stuff she saw in his car boot (bloodstains, girl's belongings - you know the drill). She and her sister Priscilla then dispose of the body.

In the second, a prostitute, Dee, has been shot dead.

Well, it doesn't take a Hercules Poirot to work out that Gorski killed Dee.  

The plots intersect through the person of Enid, who runs the town's brothel and who employed Gorski (in what capacity I was never sure).  Enid works out that Mary Beth and Priscilla are responsible for Gorski's disappearance - not difficult because the two young women have left the odd clue lying around.  

The two have also come into possession of $50,000 which Mary Beth found under the floorboards at Gorski's place.  

It turns out that Dee stole the money from Enid, which is why Gorski was ordered to kill her.  I guess he decided to keep the money for himself but why he didn't just scarper with it was unclear to me.  Understandably Enid wants her money back and has the leverage to do so.   

There are several other characters in the mix.  There's three oldish ladies who tolerated Enid setting up the brothel back in the day but now feel that things have got out of hand; a corrupt policeman, and his young keen sidekick who is sweet on Priscilla; and another prostitute who begins to suspect that Enid is behind the death of her friend Dee.

It's all entertaining up to a point but unfairly or otherwise like all films of this type it gets compared in my mind with 'Fargo' and invariably suffers as a result.  From time to time the action is punctuated by a surreal chorus of fishermen, which struck me as not much more than a nice gimmick.  

None of the characters grabbed me a ton, especially the two young women who are at the centre of it.  I found Mary Beth irritating throughout, maybe because for someone about to go to college she behaves surprisingly stupidly.  Priscilla got my sympathy as a result but doesn't have much in the way of a personality.

The other problem I had with it is that there's not much at stake.  Mary Beth and Priscilla are happy enough to return Enid's money to her, and it never seems likely that the young police guy will get to the truth. 

The ending, while superficially clever, is not very plausible - how do the three old ladies transport a cool box containing a dead body from the water to their houses?  Are we supposed to believe that the corrupt cop helped them?

Who can say?

RATING: x Curb Your Enthusiasm