"Please... keep the curtains closed."
A home invasion leads to a murder, which leads to nowhere in particular, on the scenic route, at a deathly pace, in this film from a Coen brothers' first draft script, seemingly abandoned as being without potential, and requiring a far defter touch than Clooney's (as co-writer and director) to make it work.
Everything essential seems in place, from a solid and capable cast working well, to excellent period production and costume design, and beautiful lighting and cinematography, but a refusal in the first act—and much of the second—to offer anything against which to situate these discordant and disparate elements of plot, character and tone leaves the audience flailing for elements of sympathy or empathy,…