An original form cannot support a whole film at arm's length: this is an adage that Oren Uziel will have to repeat himself during his next feature film. An ultra-classic policeman in its scenario, Shimmer Lake denotes only by its form (an inverted account of events) and which, again, is not revolutionary. Hell is paved with good intentions.
A bad script taken upside down does not save a film. Shimmer Lake traces the robbery of a bank and the ensuing investigation in a small American town in poverty, and… There is not much more to say, except that the events are taken backwards, so that the film closes on a cliffhanger supposed to change our entire perception of the film. However, by using this montage and this theme, Oren Uziel makes a poorly dosed mix between a thriller of the Coen Brothers type Fargo, and the Irreversible of Gaspar Noé. In Irreversible, the antechronological editing showed how a whole past is connected to a present event but above all, he posed the end of the film as punctuated by moments of grace that denote with the horror of its beginning. Gaspar Noé's film moved in space-time and it became absolutely necessary to make an inverted reading of the elements.
Shimmer Lake never manages to find this movement in a space-time and becomes a film that lives only for and by its end; He leaves the viewer for 1h20 to better wallow in an ultra-basic cliffhanger, carried by more or less interesting characters. The actors manage to pretty much support the film and give it some credibility, even if the development of characters and personalities leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately the stereotypes are linked: between the not very clever Sheriff Ethington (Adam Pally), the novice and nervous Andy (Rainn Wilson, who embodies one of the closest characters to the Coen universe without approaching the absurd substance), or the simple Chris Morrow (Mark Rendall), who ends up becoming endearing to all these characters and reminds us of the praise of this simplicity of mind, defended once again in the Coen Brothers' films.
Shimmer Lake could thus have been an entertaining film but nothing more, without any particular pretension; He could, by adding an effective and sharp humor, approach the best films of the genre. However, the work delights in a humor a little clumsy and heavy, punctuated by ultra-predictable situations and running gags, without even approaching an ironic or satirical dimension. While there were endless possibilities to make this film a clever mix between No Country for Old Men, Usual Suspects and Memento, Oren Uziel delights in an easy and very affordable work, which quickly loses its charm and interest.
Even music and photography fail to lift the film out of the mass of films of the same genre; the soundtrack is effective but nothing more, finally quite insignificant and expected in this universe, and the same goes for the photography that remains very smooth throughout the duration of the film and takes no bias. The suspense is maintained by force by this antechronological montage and thus loses all its spontaneity and sincerity.
We come out of Shimmer Lake certainly entertained (and again), but especially disappointed by this ending on which the film and the characters bet so much; Oren Uziel loses his bet and takes in his fall this thriller without much interest. Available on Netflix.
