I have to admit that I really wasn’t looking forward to watching this. The poster is a snooze and the short description makes it sound like the kind of aimless slow burn that is entirely not my vibe.
I WAS WRONG! TEAM LONE STAR FOR LIFE!
Lone Star uses a murder mystery as the backdrop to explore the connections and contradictions of a small town struggling with multiculturalism, with history, and with progress. For a movie with so many characters, I was surprised at how much depth each is given. Hardly a line or a scene goes to waste without revealing something new about the people of this small town.
There’s not a bad performance in the whole thing, but Chris Cooper shines as the Sheriff in an understated but rich performance.
That ending though! Good endings resolve the plot or character threads in an unexpected but satisfying way. A great ending does both, and Lone Star has a great ending.
If I had to complain, the two montages in this movie are pretty dull. The first, a montage of Sheriff Deeds taking notes, is particularly exhausting. You almost sense the filmmakers knew this as they use these montages to experiment with strange new edits and scores, none of which feel at home in this otherwise perfect movie.
