"My name is Dave, and I'm an alcoholic." Those are the words of the rugged Louisiana cop Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee Jones), as he dutifully attends his AA meetings. But it doesn't take long for the film to reveal the source of Dave's troubles: the sleazy and corrupt community in which he has sworn to uphold the law.
The film is drenched in Cajun atmosphere from the sipping of mint juleps to the bayous to the smell of the gumbo to the lure of the catfish. But the multi-generational nature of lives of crime are what circumscribe the world of Dave Robicheaux.
The narrative juggles the community's sins of the present with those of the past. One of the most interesting characters is a figment of Dave's vivid imagination: the ghost of Confederate General John Bell Hood, who appears to David in visions, giving him advice and wisdom from the sausage grinders that were the battlefields of the Civil War.
The sense of a "whodunnit" is not really captured in the film, as the colorful characters are more dominant than the suspense. Julie 'Baby Feet' Balboni (John Goodman) is the local sleaze bag, knee-deep in corruption and depravity. A movie star with a drinking problem figures in the action while on a film shoot in the bayou. A various assortment of law-enforcement officials appear to be more entrenched in the dysfunctional culture than in serving and protecting the community.
Above all, it is the granite face of Dave Robicheaux that dominates the film. The main question is whether Dave's stability will hold up to get him through the two hours of this stylish motion picture.
The film is drenched in Cajun atmosphere from the sipping of mint juleps to the bayous to the smell of the gumbo to the lure of the catfish. But the multi-generational nature of lives of crime are what circumscribe the world of Dave Robicheaux.
The narrative juggles the community's sins of the present with those of the past. One of the most interesting characters is a figment of Dave's vivid imagination: the ghost of Confederate General John Bell Hood, who appears to David in visions, giving him advice and wisdom from the sausage grinders that were the battlefields of the Civil War.
The sense of a "whodunnit" is not really captured in the film, as the colorful characters are more dominant than the suspense. Julie 'Baby Feet' Balboni (John Goodman) is the local sleaze bag, knee-deep in corruption and depravity. A movie star with a drinking problem figures in the action while on a film shoot in the bayou. A various assortment of law-enforcement officials appear to be more entrenched in the dysfunctional culture than in serving and protecting the community.
Above all, it is the granite face of Dave Robicheaux that dominates the film. The main question is whether Dave's stability will hold up to get him through the two hours of this stylish motion picture.