The Tall Man (2012)

When her child goes missing, a mother looks to unravel the legend of the Tall Man, an entity who allegedly abducts children.

The Tall Man was written and directed by Pascal Laugier and is his first English-language film. Laugier gave the world the incredible French film ‘Martyrs‘ (click for my review) so understandably I was very excited to see how he would follow that up. I tried going into The Tall Man knowing as little as I possibly could, and for that reason I’ll keep this review short, sweet and spoiler free.

To say this wasn’t the kind of film I expected to see would be an understatement. Anyone that has seen Martyrs knows how extreme the violence was, and I assumed that The Tall Man would be something similar. I was very wrong, there is no real violence on show at all here, but whilst being a very different film it is certainly no poorer for it. In fact, The Tall Man is arguably one of the finest films I’ve seen this year.

To try and offer you a basic plot summary, this film is about a legend that has been started by the local inhabitants of a little town called Cold Rock. For years the children in the town have been going missing, and people have said it’s because of an entity known as ‘The Tall Man’ who has been taking them. Julia Denning (Jessica Biel ) is the local nurse whose husband died a few years ago. We then see her child get taken, and she gives chase to the truck holding her son. She tries to track down where the child is taken to, but she finds out that there’s more to this mystery than people are letting on. The towns folk start to turn on her and the truth comes out. Julia will stop at nothing to find out who is ‘The Tall Man’ and what the truth behind this mystery really is.

Acting wise, Jessica Biel gives the best performance I have personally seen from her. As beautiful as always, but she really made me care for her plight, and I desperately wanted her to find out what was going on. She had a real depth to her character, and it’s nice to see her getting a great role and not depending solely on her looks. Backed up by a great supporting cast including Jodelle Ferland as Jenny and Stephen McHattie as Lieutenant Dodd, despite not being full of household names as such, the performances don’t let down the film at all.

My only criticism would be a couple of little aspects towards the end, but I can’t really go into detail. The final ‘reveal’ was great, but it did require me to suspend my belief about the competence of the authorities. Speaking of which, maybe it was just me but if anyone else has seen it, did you notice a certain character who just seemed to disappear about half way through…….?? Strange, and that’s why I had to deduct a couple of points from my final score, as the story got a little complicated and far-fetched.

In closing, if you are intrigued at all by this film, please keep off Wikipedia, IMDB etc until you have seen it. I’m so glad I kept away as the reviews/plots/summaries etc on those sites all give away vital plot points and twists, and going into the film with a clear mind knowing nothing certainly enhanced my viewing and I recommend you try the same. Sadly the film was dumped onto ‘Video On Demand’ and is only getting a limited theatrical run, such a shame as it really deserves to be seen by a wider audience. The Tall Man is a great psychological mystery film and one that will have you guessing right until the end.

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on August 19, 2012

https://headinavice.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/the-tall-man-2012/