After the
huge success of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl adaptation last year,
many were betting that another of her novels adapted into film would be met
with similar outcomes. Although Dark Places featured renowned actors and
actresses whose previous roles were well received, the film didn’t quite
generate similar outcomes as its predecessor.
Mad Max: Fury Road’s Charlize Theron stars
as Libby Day, a woman who has been scarred for life from witnessing the brutal
murders of her family when she was a child. Dark Places seeks to take
viewers on a journey through the broken life of a victim as she tries to piece
together what really happened to her family years ago. She is pulled into the
mystery by Lyle Wirth (played by Nicholas Hoult) and his “Kill Club,”
who believe Libby’s brother Ben - who was tried and convicted of the murders -
is really innocent. At first, Libby wants little to do with re-hashing the
tragedy, but she needs money and Lyle is offering it for her help.
Libby is
soon exposed to previously unknown family secrets: her brother being accused of
child molestation just before the murders took place and having a secret
girlfriend that he got pregnant, and that her mother was about to lose the
family farm and was spiraling into an extreme depression. Unearthing the past
may have dire consequences for Libby, but she seems to have no choice but to
see it all through until the end.
While not
a completely terrible film, Dark Places suffers from a lack of details
and complexity that would replicate that of the original novel. Many of the
characters are introduced only briefly and with very little explanation, and
oftentimes would disappear just as quickly as they appeared. The Kill Club is
only on screen once, with Lyle given just a few more appearances than that. For
a group of people so set on proving a man’s innocence and finding out the truth
of what happened the night Libby Day’s family was murdered, you’d expect them
to have a lot more involvement in the story. Ben’s girlfriend Diondra (Chloe Grace Moretz and Andrea Roth) really should have
more screen time, as she is more integral to the story than the Kill Club and
Lyle, but even she is relegated to flashbacks from Ben’s point-of-view and a
short scene with adult Libby. Although the film featured many talented and
well-rounded actors and actresses, it seemed as though the roles they were
given failed to show their best quality performance.
But aside
from passing up real character-building moments, Dark Places also
suffers from the nonexistent build-up of tension, suspense, or mystery. The
intercut flashbacks to the past make for a dull and confusing narrative flow
that almost doesn’t exist and that fails to explain why the audience should
care about it. And this is what the whole movie unsuccessfully attempts to do.
We are not given any reason to care about the characters as they are mainly
used as plot devices to keep the story going and thus, we lose our sense of
empathy for them.
Perhaps another reason why it failed in the box office is the lack of marketing for the film. Since it was released to be watched on VOD thanks to a collaborated effort between A24 and DirecTV, before the actual premiere date, those who watched it didn’t bother to go to the theaters. And those who wanted to view the film, never actually saw commercials or posters for it. Either way, no matter how many people ventured to the theaters, Dark Places ultimately failed at giving us the same profundity and depth of character that Gone Girl had last year. The original witty Libby in the novel was lost, but let’s hope Camille in Flynn’s Sharp Objects television show, will redeem her.
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