A while ago, you may remember I bumped into actor and director Mark Redfield in Manchester at the Festival of Fantastic Films.Mark is currently involved in a film project The Tell Tale Heart, an Edgar Allan Poe tale.
Whilst we were chatting in Manchester he very kindly gave me a copy of a Tom Brandau film, Cold Harbor, which he not only starred in but also produced.
I watched this quite late one night and this turned out to be an excellent move as the film draws you in. It deals with four brothers who have just lost their father through suicide, as they journey to the quiet seaside community where he lived and set about emptying his house.
As they do so they must each come to terms with their relationships to each other and their different recollections and relationships to their father. This is most certainly a reflective drama not a gung-ho action blast and it just suited my mood as I watched.
The film has a realistic gritty feel to it too. There are some quite atmospheric moments where I thought I was being set up for a "horror moment", but then in real life things like that don't happen too often. Even in the scene where the brothers decide to symbolically burn their father's boat, the temptation to go over the top with pyrotechnics is resisted, leaving a far more realistic scene and probably my favourite moment in the film as each of the brothers reflects and you can't help but be there with them, sharing - even helping create - what is going through their minds.
There are moments of humour and tension particularly as the second brother determines to steal the suicide note from the police station and the others create a diversion.
Described as "intense and moody" this film won't have you on the edge of your seat throughout, but you will be involved!
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