Out of Blue

Mystical and atmospheric, this film casts a spell, but ultimately it's too long and too slow-burning to really enchant. Carol Morley's murder mystery -- which was based on the novel by Martin Amis -- clearly wants viewers to draw parallels between Jennifer Rockwell's snuffed-out life and the dying stars she studied. The film stops dead in its tracks several times to allow the scientist to intone portentous statements like "There is much we can't see, detect, or comprehend, yet we spend our lives trying to get to the heart of this dark energy, this dark matter." All righty, then. What really lends this film the gravitas it has are the talented actors in the cast, not the labored connection between consciousness and cosmology that never quite gels.

Instead, what we have here is a procedural, albeit a very languid one. Clarkson, always a delight to watch, ratchets up her emotional involvement as she makes the rounds of Rockwell's loved ones over and over, poking into the dead woman's life even as her own buttoned-down existence starts to fray at the edges. The plotline has the same beats as a Law & Order episode -- but with sterling talent in front of the camera and big ideas at work (even if they're half-baked), this drama is more special, if somewhat frustrating for the impatient and/or the thrill-seeking.