The Tall Man - Fear has many faces

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Movie
German title The Tall Man - Fear has many faces
Original title The Tall Man
Country of production Canada
France
original language English
Publishing year 2012
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Pascal Laugier
script Pascal Laugier
production Clément Miserez
Kevin DeWalt
Jean-Charles Levy
Scott Kennedy
music Todd Bryanton
camera Kamal Derkaoui
cut Sebastien Prangere
occupation

The Tall Man - Fear has many faces (AKA: The Tall Man ) is a French Canadian mystery - thriller from director Pascal Laugier from 2012.

action

Julia is a nurse in Cold Rock, a small town in Washington . Cold Rock used to be a busy and thriving place; But that changed suddenly when the local mining mines were dissolved. Since then there has been hardly any work, the school closed and tribulation, despair and poverty spread. Julia herself visits different families during her working day and thus also helps the pregnant Carol with the birth of her child. Carol lives with Jennifer (Jenny), her mother Tracy, and her violent boyfriend who made Carol pregnant. Julia is furious because instead of sending her boyfriend away, Tracy trumps Carol with her new child. Jenny is also traumatized due to the psychological stress in her family and no longer speaks. On the other hand, she records her thoughts and experiences. Among the drawings is the "big man", a modern local myth that is said to be responsible for the numerous child abductions. Jenny gestures to Julia that she saw him.

Julia returns to her house, which is a bit out of the way from Cold Rock. There she lives with David, her son, and her nanny Christine. Your husband died some time ago. After eating and playing together, Julia falls asleep on the couch. At night she is unexpectedly awakened by noises. When she goes downstairs, she finds Christine tied to the floor - and then she notices that David has disappeared. Julia sees a human shadow running away, pursues it and is able to hold onto the kidnapper's car for a while until an accident occurs. The kidnapper escapes into the forest with David. Julia loses track and collapses.

Lieutenant Dodd finds Julia and takes her to the local pub. The guests present behave strangely. When Julia sees a shrine with a picture of David in the back room, she becomes suspicious and flees. The villagers go into pursuit. Hiding in the back seat of a police patrol, she comes to an abandoned building and finds David, who is afraid of her and runs away. Suddenly David's birth mother knocks Julia down and starts interrogating her. It turns out that Julia is the actual kidnapper. When asked where the rest of the children are, Julia replies that she gave them to the “big man”. Shortly afterwards she escapes with Jenny and David. In her house she and her nanny hand Christine David over to the "big man" in the old Cold Rock mine tunnel. Jenny also wants to talk to the "big man" and only leaves when Julia assures her that she has given Jenny's name and address to the "big man".

When Julia wakes up in the morning, Christine hanged herself; the police with Lieutenant Dodd and the angry townspeople are at the door. After David's mother tells of what happened, the city is convinced that Julia abducted all the lost children.

In police custody, she admits to being responsible for past child abductions. There is no such thing as a “great man”. She also claims to have killed the children and buried them in the forest, which is a lie. In fact, Julia belongs to an organization that "rescues" children of poor or abusive parents and hands them over to caring new parents. The group wants to break the cycle of poverty and abuse that continues from generation to generation.

Some time later, Jenny watches her mother Tracy having a violent argument with her drunken boyfriend and intervenes, but is thrown to the ground by her stepfather and injured. Shortly thereafter, Tracy immediately laughs again, as if nothing had happened. Disgusted by this, Jenny turns away and follows a rustle in the forest - she sees the "big man" there. He is actually Julia's spouse, who surprisingly is not dead after all. Together, the two drive to a large, nearby town, where Julia's husband gives Jenny to a new mother. This wants to pay, but the "big man" refuses and says that the organization is taking great risks in order to save every child. Julia and Christine sacrificed themselves to protect the work of the organization.

Cold Rock is back to normal. Julia is in prison; you face the death penalty . The police have closed the case and given up looking for the alleged children's bodies. At the same time, Jenny now lives in a loving family that offers her everything she needs. The girl is speaking again and seems happy. As she goes to the drawing class, she reflects on her three mothers and their love for them: her birth mother, who misses Jenny; about Julia, to whom she owes her new life; and about her third mother, who now offers her a beautiful and peaceful life. On the way she sees David with his new family and suspects that he has already forgotten his birth parents. Close to tears, Jenny finally closes the film with the thoughtful words “I wanted this life. I guess it's better that way. Or? Or? Or at.

production

Jessica Biel was positively impressed by Pascal Laugier's previous film, Martyrs , and also liked the script of The Tall Man . She was increasingly enthusiastic about his project and wanted to work as an actress. The recordings began in September 2010, was filmed in the region Kootenay in British Columbia . The film is Pascal Laugier's first English-language production.

publication

The film premiered in 2012 at the South by Southwest Festival . The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 25, 2012. The box office amounted to 5,212,903 US dollars .

reception

The reactions were different: The Tall Man got 5.2 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.9 out of 10 on IMDb . Elizabeth Kerr wrote on The Hollywood Reporter that the film was like Martyrs breathtaking sequences, but a leaden one Narrative shows. Jeanette Catsoulis made a positive comparison with Stephen King's early works in the New York Times and included The Tall Man in the New York Times Critics' Pick .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Tall Man - Fear Has Many Faces . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2013 (PDF; test number: 137 427 V).
  2. ↑ Evan Dickson: Jessica Biel On Defying Convention With Pascal Laugier And The Ending Of 'The Tall Man' . In: Bloody Disgusting . August 8, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  3. ^ Brad Miska: Production Officially Underway on 'The Tall Man' . In: Bloody Disgusting . September 28, 2010. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  4. ^ Greg Nesteroff: Finding Nelson in The Tall Man . In: Nelson Star . Black Press. Retrieved August 26, 2012.
  5. ↑ Amanda Waltz: SXSW Features 'Girls Against Boys' and 'The Tall Man' Picked Up For Distribution; 'Barrymore' To Finally See Light Of Day . In: The Film Stage . March 13, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  6. ↑ Steve Barton: US Trailer Premiere for the Tall Man Arrives! . In: Dread Central . July 20, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  7. ↑ The Tall Man . In: Box Office Mojo . Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  8. ^ The Tall Man Movie Reviews . In: Rotten Tomatoes . Flixster. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  9. ↑ Elizabeth Kerr: The Tall Man: Filmart Review . In: The Hollywood Reporter . March 20, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2013.
  10. ^ Jeanette Catsoulis: A Small-Town Buzz About the Missing . In: The New York Times , August 30, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2013. 

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