Serial killer movies are like westerns or gangster flicks; there are all levels of them from cheap slasher exploitation to procedural ones where the heroes are scientific-minded detectives and all sorts of variations in between. MOJAVE, written and directed by Oscar winner William Monahan (for writing THE DEPARTED) is the existential and psychological type. It stars Oscar Isaac, Mark Wahlberg, Garret Hedlund, and Walton Goggins. With that cast and pedigree, you would expect MOJAVE to be a major release, but the new film has slipped quietly into few theaters this weekend with little fanfare. It’s seriously flawed and I understand why the studio had little faith in it, but it has its moments and for adventurous moviegoers it’s worth seeking out.
Garrett Hedlund stars in MOJAVE as Thomas, a shaggy-haired movie producer who has it all: a beautiful wife and child, a sprawling home, and a foxy French mistress (Hayley Magnus). We first meet him as he hops out of bed and drives his jeep to the titular desert with nothing but two bottles of vodka and some water. It seems he’s out there to end his life but changes his mind when leather-clad drifter Jack (Oscar Isaac) stumbles onto his campsite. Jack holds a rifle with seven notches in it, the same number as murder victims that have recently been found out there in the Mojave. The two men wax philosophical for a while about Jesus and Ahab and Shakespeare and selling one’s soul, exchanging elliptical dialog like “Who are you?”…”No one in particular”….”Anyone in general?” Thomas manages to avoid Jack’s deadly intent, but in the process he accidentally kills an innocent man. He heads back to L.A., but Jack is on his tail CAPE FEAR-style, with revenge on his mind.
MOJAVE is at times a fairly intense movie, visually stylish and thematically creepy. It begins extremely well before descending into a series of inevitable murders and confrontations and a predictable climax where our hero discovers that when push comes to shove, we’re all brutes and animals. With THE DEPARTED, Monahan had the frame of an earlier Chinese crime film to hang his story and dialog on, but this film is less plot-driven and more a rambling character study. The acting is uneven. Hedlund is scowling and surly throughout, mumbling with an ever-present cigarette dangling from his lips. You wonder how he ever became a movie exec. In fact, the world of Hollywood insiders in MOJAVE plays more like that of vulgar mid-level gangsters than successful movie folk. Wahlberg in a small role phones in his performance. I don’t mean that as an insult – he has four scenes and in three of them he’s talking on the phone. Goggins is low key but funny in another minor part as Thomas’ manager. Best is Oscar Isaac, excellent as an intelligent psychotic who knows the rules and manages to violate every code of human decency while still keeping arm’s-length from the law (where are the police in this movie anyway?). Unfortunately, Jack is given little motivation for his evil deeds and no back story. It’s not a great movie, but if you want to get in out of the cold for a couple of hours, you could do worse than MOJAVE.
3 of 5 Stars
