THE STORY – In a wellness-obsessed small town where nobody dies anymore, struggling mortician Clyde faces bankruptcy — until his granddaughter Sam devises an unexpected solution to save the family business.
THE CAST – Christopher Walken, Ella Ballentine, Jane Curtin, Cooper Levy, Deborah Grover, Tony Nappo, Stuart Hughes, Watson Rose, Josh Richards
THE TEAM – Ron Murphy (Director/Writer), Nick Torokvei (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 92 Minutes
What to do when in the death business and times are hard? Why not amplify the body count with a few carefully arranged acts of sabotage and grimly reap the rewards?
Such is the silly yet fertile premise of Ron Murphy’s “Back in Black”, a quaint Canadian-shot satire about using murder as a way of making money. Murphy, whose credits include directing several episodes of the boisterous “Trailer Park Boys”, assembles a fine cast to bring levity to these dour events and to keep the rollicking pace working throughout.
Christopher Walken plays the patriarch of the funeral home, Clyde Mortimer, a man decrying that thanks to seatbelts and safety laws people aren’t just dropping dead fast enough. His orphaned granddaughter Sam (Ella Ballentine) is quietly sullen, but her lack of speaking makes her an excellent listener. Overhearing Clyde complain to his wife (Jane Curtain) about their financial woes, she decides to take action to turn their finances from the red to the black.
When opportunity strikes to whip out a screwdriver and take out a particularly obnoxious shop manager, the hope that a fulsome funeral will result. Instead, the small-town citizens continue in their tight-pursed ways, pushing Sam to expand her macabre sociopathy to a greater scope.
The resulting film is a breezy, if slightly comical satire, tackling larger issues of existential and economic import within the guise of a droll small-town drama. Co-written with Nick Torokvei, Murphy’s script manages to skate the line between completely preposterous and the almost believable, with the character actions elevated just enough to allow them to be bigger than life without ever quite slipping into being cartoonish.
The greatest gift, of course, is another late career turn by Walken. It’s foul-mouthed sardonicism and graceful physical presence that anchors the entire project, and for him alone the film is worth seeking out. Ballentine’s presence is warm even when she engages in chilling behaviour, but it’s a pretty thankless, at times overly passive role filled with glances that requires doing a lot with a little, and doesn’t always succeed in bringing audiences into the character’s inner thoughts.
By the time the film escalates to even more preposterous levels, it does feel like it’s all a bit much, not quite earning the heights of mayhem where we end up. Still, there’s a sweetness at play, and pleasure from witnessing the schadenfreude that provides the movie with much of its success.
The scope of the film isn’t huge, and there’s an episodic feel to the whole affair, somehow making the small town feel even smaller. Seemingly shot in and around the Niagara Falls region, the generic small town feels just that: a series of motels and storefronts that lack any particular personality. Despite the morbid nature of all we witness, there’s not a lot of depth at play here, and even romantic entanglements feel entirely telegraphed with little in the way of actual passion or connection.
“Back in Black” is one of those small flicks that gets a chance to shine, illuminated by the glare of a major international film festival, but set in direct contrast with films from around the world that build in this particular satirical sandbox far more effectively; it’s hard not to feel a bit let down. Still, thanks to Walken’s charms, the rest of the committed cast, and a silly enough premise, there may be enough here for you to casually sink yourself into.
