A Single shot is a Slow Burn Drama for Sam Rockwell

Sam Rockwell has been really busy in 2013.  First with his endearing performance in The Way Way Back and now in the Tribeca film A Single Shot.  In this film, Rockwell portrays hunter John Moon out on his usual deer hunt when it goes terribly awry and a young woman is shot instead.  Thus, the story begins…very slowly begins.  We spend the next 40 minutes of this film watching  John dispose of this unknown girl, trying to get his estranged wife and son back, get tortured by the victim’s boyfriend and watch him spend money that clearly is not his own.

We never really find out who this girl is except that her boyfriend is the owner of the money being spent and it was obtained by illegal means.  After much bloodshed, we witness John Moon finally burying the girl and fall into the grave himself after losing blood from a cut finger.  The irony of this whole mangled mess is seen when as John is passing out with the dead girl on top of him a dear stands by watching him fade from this realm.

Baby…this was a rough one.  Despite the snail pace torture of the plot, performances are definitely worth acknowledging.  Sam Rockwell is effective as a man whose self-worth and confidence is being tested by the loss of his family and life as he has known it.  Jeffrey Wright, as Moon’s good buddy Simon, makes you forget you are watching an amazingly brilliant performance from an actor, but peeking in on the life of a man who is broken and turns to booze and women for comfort.

Written by Matthew F. Jones and directed by David M. Rosenthal,  A Single Shot is one of those films you turn on to pass time while cooking or doing your nails…wait for the DVD kids…