Boneyard includes there the murder angle, the creepiest aspect apart from the title, is that the killer in question is likely alive and well walking this Earth even as you read this. For those of you unfamiliar with the West Mesa murders, do catch up whether you watch this cliched cop drama or not. The find of the skeletal remains of numerous bodies back in 2009 shocked not only the startled population of Albequerque, New Mexico but the entire country as within days it turned into a national headline and investigation. It was suggested that there were links between the sex trafficking and the serial killings of suspects which were named, but in everyday language, the investigation is still very active.
This isn’t to say however, that the lead homicide detectives featured in Boneyard and played by Brian Van Holt, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Nora Zehetner and Mel Gibson, all do mad searches for the perpetrator(s). Just like the outcomes of the real life probe, the completion of their new film directed by Asif Akbar (Skeletons in the Closet), and a script he co-wrote with Hank Byrd, Vincent E McDaniel and Koji Steven Sakai, turned out to be a bit disappointing.
As per the reports that have been made public within the media, a common account that women whose bodies are discovered in Boneyard have been buried sometime between 2001 and 2005, before its 2009 when a woman who took her pet for a walk noticed a human bone protruding from the soil in the West Mesa region of Albuquerque. It helps in understanding how the film starts except with the bone ‘discovery’ technique applied here to much more thrilling effect. For some reason, nothing extraordinary can be taken from being the shocking inhumanity by day, especially in deserts where there is lovely sun and plenty of it, leaves us wondering why only bat night seems to be the only time evil is not found everywhere in the world today.
I wish that the rest of the picture could aspire to such heights. Mrs Kelly Reichardt produces another good film – First Cow but at first, it also started out the same way, when a woman (Alia Shawkat) came across a pair of skeletons just for the sake of it in the picture, and the remaining portion of that picture is rather combative in terms of its general atmosphere. Boneyard suffers from a similar ailment. Its rather flat tone for the rest of its duration is not compensated with touching characters, beautiful pictures, meaningful ideas, and multilayered acting as in First Cow.
It is not to suggest, however, that the pillars of Boneyard do not try. There’s Detective, the only woman handling the case and facing the hyper-masculinity all around her. She is very talented yet rather ignored actress Nora Zehetner, who in her last appearance appeared to be amusingly unchanged by time since the almost twenty year old Rian Johnson’s neo-noir Brick. Murray P. February’s Boneyard has been unfair to her character. Still, we cheer for her all the way, more so when her department is against her, I guess because of their discriminatory ideas.
50 Cent is one who has made a good impression from time to time, but here he does not seem to gel being the rather rigid chief of detectives, Ortega Brian Van Holt. 50 Cent is definitely more versatile than she has portrayed – comedy, grit, etc – however, here the performer has to be in charge which probably inhibits the performer as Mark. You look at him and you know that he is not the dictator. Unfortunately, the same poor casting is true even for Van Holt who was directed to be encaged in his rough voice and seething temper. He looks like he is always in a stance, straining his muscles, or maybe he is just suffering from constipation. It is restricting for the normally charming and handsome performer who is able to light up the big and the small screen whenever he appears that most of the time is overshadowed by action wide scope and far more appealing devices.
The director was adamant that there is no representation of law enforcement in the film that is not actionable, and one can understand this to an extent as the audience witnesses the characters overworking themselves on this dammed case doing day and mediately night shifts. Boneyard in the end manages to swallow the story from real life about how these agencies teamed up to identify and catch the killer. The warranted and expected professionals and professional development conflict erupts, more so when one cannot tell the friendly ‘old hand’ who drops down from the mount.
No matter what happens, eccentric and competent serial killers will always remain the crux of many a high tension, even a dark, thriller. Fringe of the Family, it was Frances McDormand again. Red State has John Goodman. The Long Goodbye has Elliott Gould. Boneyard has Mel Gibson, who called his American accented abused daughter irritating yet light-hearted as his dark backstory about trying to avenge her death leads him to other unjust causes like that one in West Mesa.
Gibson-in-Rzhep attempts to stay in touch with the public regarding Lethal Weapon 5, which, undoubtedly, has a great potential for development, compared to this one Boneyard. The above films stand for something else back and also reminds us things that how great he is at being an odd cop. His role in this latest project which qualifies as such, still manages to recreate the wasted feeling goes roughly as follows. His comic relief in this latest project is serious and few in between and, as such, not enough to keep Boneyard alive, even with those attempts to cast the plot in the light of the stunning injuries and trying to hint that’s an inside job.
Another ‘big twist’ is saved for the third act, but it doesn’t have to be that way, considering that the entire picture is rather muddled down by a dull, one-note tone and a script that reads like a checklist, with nothing overly interesting happening as the story goes on. In our recent talk with Van Holt, he pointed out how he wishes this story would impact the actual investigation in a good way. Unfortunately, and yes, it will probably again cast the shadow on this ongoing tragedy, but perhaps this story should be only told by documentary makers when the perpetrator is properly caught.
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