Alan Calton, Blackwater Lane, Dermot Mulroney, drama, Jeff Celentano, Judah Cousin, Kris Johnson, Maggie Grace, Minka Kelly, movies, Pandora Clifford, reviews, Sally Blouet
August 15, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Jeff Celentano
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed part of England, the dramatic film “Blackwater” (based on the 2017 novel “The Breakdown”) features an all-white group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A married schoolteacher sees a woman slumped in a car at night and later finds out the woman was dead in the car, and this witness starts to get harassed by a mysterious stalker.
Culture Audience: “Blackwater Lane” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners or the “Breakdown” novel, but the movie collapses under the weight of its own stupidity.
The time-wasting mystery thriller “Blackwater Lane” is an inferior adaptation of B.A. Paris’ popular 2017 novel “The Breakdown.” This soulless movie ruins the book’s story with a nonsensical narrative and lackluster acting. It’s one of those movies that goes around in annoying repetitive circles until the movie’s predictable and ridiculously staged ending.
Directed by Jeff Celentano and written by Elizabeth Fowler, “Blackwater Lane” takes place in an unnamed part of England. (The movie was actually filmed in Suffolk, England.) In “The Breakdown,” the three main characters are British. But because “Blackwater Lane” is an American production, the movie changes the main characters to all be people who were raised in the U.S., in order to explain their American accents.
“Blackwater Lane” is named for the street that is the location of the crime scene that’s the catalyst for the story’s mystery. The three main characters in “Blackwater Lane” are:
- Cass Anderson (played by Minka Kelly), a former actress who is now a drama teacher at a high school. Cass is soft-spoken and has a gentle personality. It’s mentioned that Cass is half-British and half-American and was raised in the United States, but she’s currently living in a castle that she inherited from the British side of her family.
- Matthew Anderson (played by Dermot Mulroney) is Cass’ American husband. It isn’t made very clear what Matthew does for a living, but he’s been spending a lot of time renovating the castle. Matthew and Cass have no children but have been trying to start a family.
- Rachel (played by Maggie Grace) is Cass’ best friend. Just like Cass, Rachel is also a half-British and half-American person who was raised in the United States. Rachel is a confident extrovert who is a bachelorette career woman who works at an unnamed office job.
One rainy night, Cass is driving on Blackwater Lane when she sees a woman in her 30s or 40s slumped over in the driver’s seat of a car parked on the side of the road. Cass slows down to take a closer look but doesn’t get out of her car. Is the woman dead or alive? Cass doesn’t know, and she’s the only driver on this deserted and desolate road.
Ultimately, Cass decides to drive away without telling anyone or doing anything to find out if the woman in the car needs help. Cass also doesn’t tell anyone what she saw until she sees a TV news report the next day that the woman in the car was found dead in the car. Police suspect foul play. A medical examiner report later determines that the woman had been murdered.
The murder victim’s name is Jane Walters (played by Sally Blouet), and her next of kin are her husband Alex Walters (played by Kris Johnson) and 2-year-old twins. The police estimate that Jane died between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. because she called Alex at 10 p.m. that night. Cass feels increasingly guilty about not checking to see if Jane was still alive and not reporting immediately that she saw Jane in the car.
It turns out that Jane was a co-worker of Rachel’s. Jane recently left the company and Cass actually briefly met Jane at the company’s going-away party for Jane. The movie reveals if Cass eventually tells anyone else what she saw on Blackwater Lane that night. In the meantime, Cass begins to be harassed by a mysterious stalker, who seems to have access to her home and who makes menacing phone calls to her. This harassment happens when Cass is alone and she can’t prove what happen, so Alex begins to question her sanity. How cliché.
There are half-hearted attempts to try to introduce possible suspects. Susie (played by Pandora Clifford) is a talkative British friend of Cass and Andrew. John Collins (played by Alan Calton) is a tennis coach for the wealthy people in the area. Andrew (played by Judah Cousin) is a student of Cass’ who seems to have an obsessive crush on her.
“Blackwater Lane” is filled with shallow scenes that don’t really go anywhere. The movie’s plot twists are crammed in the last 20 minutes and are sloppily filmed. In the end, the villain or villains of the story can be very easy to predict once you see that “Blackwater Lane” has nothing clever or inventive to offer.
Lionsgate released “Blackwater Lane” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on June 21, 2024.