The Scent of Rain & Lightning

I will not rate or review this movie. It may be brilliant. Just to say that I noticed it because it was classified on the Net as Western. It is not a Western.

Westerns can be a lot of things, but this ain't it.

I recently saw this movie at the Atlanta Film Festival. The acting was great, the colors used were amazing, and the story was interesting enough to keep the audience captivated.

Normally with those three items mentioned, this would be a perfect movie. Unfortunately, parts of the movie left the audience confused. You weren't sure exactly who was who at times, and the director admitted some viewers will be confused.

The beginning dragged on a bit, and it took much longer than needed to realize you were watching two different time lines. This type of movie is difficult to direct and besides the character confusion, I honestly believe the director did his best to portray the two time-lines in order to give the full story.

It's a movie worth watching, but make sure you don't lose your focus or else you may get lost.

Scent of Rain and Lightning (an adaptation of the novel by Nancy Pickard) upends expectations at every twisted turn. Anchored by a strong script from RUDDERLESS writers Casey Twenter and Jeff Robison, the film refuses to comply with the usual genre rules. Styled as a Western, flirting at the edges of a who-don-it, the film ultimately questions if we can truly know the truths of our personal histories...let alone understand them. Director Blake Robbins's extreme close-ups create a feeling of confusion and claustrophobia while a stellar cast hints at unseen histories. Watch for Maggie Grace's enigmatic portrayal of the headstrong, paradoxical Laurie.

Although I like the mystery genre this time I wasn't completely satisfied. There was just too much going on, back and forth from the present to the past, too many characters, that results in a too confused story to follow. The acting was good though, certainly nothing bad to say about that. The filming was good too. Just too bad it was all that confusing and a also bit slow at times. Why they put this movie in the western genre is also a mystery to me. It's not because it's in Texas and that people wear cowboy hats that it's a western. But the movie is worth a watch, you won't get bored. I won't watch it a second time though, once is enough.

With a stellar cast, I really did expect more from percent of rain and lightning. It just seems to drag on and on with only a few standout scenes, what could've been a compelling who done it turns out to be more than a bit of a drag! It seems to have been shot on a pretty tight budget, but even so a little bit of creative cinematography could've elevated it higher. The modern western setting is nothing we haven't seen 1000 times before, and sadly some of the drawnout shots are more style over substance. Again, the cast do nothing wrong, but aren't given much to work with in what is a truly forgettable movie.