What sets Sweet Virginia above the pack is a leisurely inquiry into the moral rot that seeps into the very bones of lives bent out of shape by disappointment, frustration, loneliness or the absence of love.
It starts with a bang, ends with a bang, and those scenes bookend some solid character moments and tense, atmospheric filmmaking. This small gem is worth seeking out.
This taut drama exists in a timeless noir territory, a world of free-floating dread and dashed hopes where mood supersedes specifics of time and place.
A twisty, small-town thriller that blooms in the shadows and shies from the light, "Sweet Virginia" marshals a relentlessly threatening mood from dangerous secrets and unpleasant surprises.
Despite the best efforts of a game cast, Jamie M. Dagg's atmospheric neo-noir is hamstrung by dispiritingly predictable storytelling and thinly drawn characterizations.
All that said, the movie is well put together, enough so that if you're not entirely tired of its clichés, it might constitute a tolerable entertainment. I'd rather watch Double Indemnity for the 15th time.
