'Texas Killing Fields' review

Sam Worthington (Credit: Anchor Bay)

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Two detectives—even-keeled Brian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and hot-tempered Mike (Sam Worthington)—are on the case of a serial killer in Texas City. The trail inevitably leads them to the infamous Killing Fields, a real-life marshland by the city's outskirts where a string of killers have dumped the bodies of over 50 mutilated and sexually assaulted women since the late '60s. With the help of Mike's brusque ex-wife Pam (Jessica Chastain), also a police officer, they kick up their search following the disappearance of a troubled local girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) under Brian's care.

The buzz: That Chastain girl…so familiar. Where have we seen her before? Oh, in like a gazillion other movies this year. "Texas Killing Fields" is the breakout ingenue's fifth film to date in 2011—her prolific output also includes buzzworthy turns in "Tree of Life" and "The Help." Another, Ralph Fiennes' "Coriolanus," is due soon. Give the gal a vacay!

The verdict: Good call to hire Chastain. As a cop with no compunctions about whooping a suspect in the face—while maintaining her perfectly manicured nails—Chastain's spicy, take-no-prisoners chutzpah remains the most interesting element of this by-the-numbers thriller. Novice director Ami Canaan Mann dutifully sticks to the serial-killer guidebook like a student too studious to draw outside the lines. Most everything in "Texas Killing Fields" is a procedural exercise in form, mood and narrative—it's all awfully familiar, down to the decoy suspects and the trigger-happy climax. Mann gets swept up in painting tense atmospherics but only pays lip service to the deeper, darker motivations of her characters, which are never fully investigated. Worthington, in particular, is exhausting to watch as the short-fused detective. He sets his emotional register to "rage" and the dial gets stuck—all he can do is bark out his lines while furrowing is brow. Could it be because he's still trying to solve the mystery of his spotty accent? Aussie? Southern? Voice-coached? Tracking the right one down becomes as elusive as the search for the film's serial killer.

Did you know? "Texas Killing Fields" is Mann's first big gig as a feature-film director, but we're betting she got some good advice from Dad. Her father is Michael Mann, the esteemed director of such films as "Public Enemies," "Collateral" and "Ali."

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