Forrester Whittaker once again continues to show why he’s a force to be reckoned with in a film that sadly lets him down.
William Garnett is getting out of prison after 18 years for committing the inexcusable crime of the murder of a Sheriff’s Deputy. While inside he has found peace through Islam and wants to move on with his life, but the odds are stacked against him as his past tries to catch up with him in more ways than one. Garnett is in a continuous struggle to leave his old past behind him, while fending off the minor advances of Sheriff Agati (Harvey Keitel) who still hasn’t forgiven him for the murder of his deputy all those year ago. It’s up to Garnett, with the help of his new parole officer Emily, (Brenda Blethyn) to stay on the right side of the law and not get dragged down by the past.
Two Men In Town, for all intensive purposes, is really quite a misleading title. The film is billed as a sort of power struggle between Whittaker’s Garnett and Keitel’s Agati, as the Sheriff seemingly harasses Garnett at any opportune moment in order to push the man to the breaking point. In reality though, Keitel has only a handful of scenes, half of which aren’t even with Whittaker, instead with the parole officer, Emily. If Two Men In Town had followed through with the idea of the good Sheriff (and to be fair, he really is) harassing Garnett, then perhaps this film could have been an entertaining thriller. Instead Two Men In Town just plods along slowly as Whittaker tries his best to maintain interest. Don’t be fooled by the trailer, this story is mostly about Garnett’s attempt at redemption, as he seeks to forgive himself and move on with his life.
What significance Garnett’s new found faith in Islam has to the story is never really explaiedn, instead seeming more like a vice for people to look at him funny and poke the odd jibe towards him. This felt like a running theme for the film, unsure what it was trying to say, what it was trying to do. Take Blethyn’s character, Emily, she comes off suspicious, uninterested, hard-nosed with almost everyone at first and we see two very ambiguous scenes at her place of home that are pretty much useless to the audience. Yet by the second act, without any real growth, she’s suddenly right in Garnett’s corner fighting for him. Garnett’s old friend and partner in crime (literally), Terence (Luis Guzman) comes off as someone who would do anything for Garnett but engages in a heinous act towards the end of the film. Keitel’s Sheriff Agati is perhaps the only consistent character alongside Whittaker’s as a man who is genuinely quite decent, if not stern in his work, but totally unable to forgive and forget.
If there’s anything this film is trying to highlight it’s that there is no black and white, instead just a whole lot of grey, but that’s not significant enough of a message to solely hang your hat upon.
Two Men In Town is out on DVD on July 6th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ_ZHJfTWxQ
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