DON MCKAY
When we first meet him, Don McKay (Thomas Haden Church) is a deeply frowning janitor at a high school, someone who seems too good for the job: a bit too handsome, maybe even too intelligent. Something has brought him down, he’s clearly hiding from, emerging only to address the tiny details of aesthetic perfection of his surroundings...he does his job too well.
Don McKay was imagined as a neo film noir by it’s writer/director Jake Goldberger, who states that he was inspired to start writing it after his first viewing of the Coen Brothers Blood Simple several years ago. He thus introduces our not quite hero, McKay and then sends him back to his hometown, beckoned by his high school girlfriend, Sonny (Elizabeth Shue) who is dying of an unnamed illness that causes her legs to collapse from under her periodically. When Don arrives he,and we since we are decidedly occupying his point of view, get that creepy feeling things aren’t quite right. Even though Sonny looks radiantly healthy (except for the leg problem), she has as nurse/caretaker named Marie (Melissa Leo, pictured above) standing guard, and dressed like cross between a 1950s housewife and legal secretary. Dr. Lance Pryce (James Rebhorn) drops in to check on Sonny and seems, to be a little bit overprotective.
The cast is superb, all skilled and experienced actors who were probably drawn to this very quirky script for a chance to have fun. Elizabeth Shue, as a breathless 40 year old ingenue is a perfect counter to the dour and befuddled Don. But everyone gets to shift gears, as one crazy surprise leads, inevitably to another. There are a few missteps as well as loose ends that never get tied up. One character in particular, the unfortunately named but compelling and seemingly sane Otis (Keith David) winds up being nothing more than a red herring.
Don McKay is probably more of a darkly comedic thriller than film noir, which tends to be more narratively linear than this. There is, of course, nothing wrong with that, and the film winds up lurching forward, and zigzagging to it’s utterly off the wall and genuinely surprising conclusion. It’s therefore the kind of film that has you scratching your head and wondering if it does indeed all fit together and make sense days after you’ve seen it, it’s just that interesting.
Don McKay opens April 2, 2010.
Written and directed by Jake Goldberger; produced by Jim Young and Thomas Haden Church; Director of Photography, Phil Parmet; edited by Andrew Dickler; music by Steve Bramson. Released by Image Entertainment. Running time: 87 minutes.
With: Thomas Haden Church (Don McKay); Elizabeth Shue (Sonny); Melissa Chessington Leo (Marie); James Rebhorn (Dr. Lance Pryce); Keith David (Otis); Pruitt Taylor Vince (Mel) and M. Emmet Walsh (Samuel.)
