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The Tall Man (2012 film)

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The Tall Man
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPascal Laugier
Written byPascal Laugier
Produced byClément Miserez
Kevin DeWalt
Jean-Charles Levy
Scott Kennedy[1]
StarringJessica Biel
Jodelle Ferland
Stephen McHattie
Distributed byImage Entertainment
Release date
  • 31 August 2012 (2012-08-31)
Running time
100 minutes
CountriesFrance
Canada
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$18,200,000 (estimated)[2]
Box office$4,532,359[3]

The Tall Man is a 2012 English-language French mystery film written and directed by Pascal Laugier. It was filmed in the Kootenay region of Southeastern British Columbia[4] and stars Jessica Biel. The film is set in a small mining town where children are disappearing on a regular basis, and the abductions are blamed on a local legend called "the Tall Man." Jessica Biel plays a nurse whose own son disappears, leading her to seek out the mystery of the Tall Man.

Cast

Plot

When her child is abducted, Julia Denning (Biel) attempts to unravel the local legend of "The Tall Man", an entity who allegedly abducts children.

Julia lives in a small ex-mining town in Washington. She is the town's local nurse, widowed by her husband who was the town's doctor. The town of Cold Rock was formerly a mining town, but since these mines - forming miles of tunnels under the entire area - closed down, the town has become a poverty stricken and run down area. There is no school, no work and only apathy abounds.

During her day, Julia visits several families, including Jenny (Jodelle Ferland) and her mother who lives with her violent alcoholic boyfriend. This man left Carol, Jenny's sister, pregnant, but their mother did not kick him out of their house; instead, she sent her daughter and the baby - that Julia helped to be delivered - to her sister in Seattle. Julia is obviously very disappointed in her and this choice. Because of her rough life and family problems, Jenny is selectively mute and only writes down her feelings in a notebook which she always carries.

Julia returns to her large home on the outskirts of Cold Rock, which she shares with her son David and his nanny. She eats dinner, puts David to bed, then she falls asleep on a couch. She awakes to a noise downstairs, followed by loud radio sermon. She finds the nanny tied and gagged on the ground, then rushes to her son's bedroom from which he is gone. Or at least that's how it seems at first.

Spoilers

While in pursuit of what the viewer believes is "The Tall Man", it's gradually revealed that Julia's son isn't, in fact, her son at all, but rather one of the kidnapped children. Julia isn't a distraught mother attempting to locate her child; she's actually the person the entire town has been afraid of all this time. The person who took her 'son' was actually the real mother of the boy, who by accident had discovered that Julia had kidnapped him and was holding him at her house. The mother, being homeless and regarded as the town crazy, decided to rescue her boy on her own, fearing that if she went to the police the well-respected Julia would have her locked away, dismissing her accusations as the ramblings of a madwoman.

Julia pursues the woman and David to the abandoned hospital where she has been living. During a fight Julia knocks out the woman and with the help of Jenny, she returns to her house. Jenny begs her to "Let the Tall Man take her too", something which Julia initially says no to, but then relents, although she tells Jenny that she should be careful what she wishes for and not to speak to anyone about this. Julia then takes David down into the tunnels, presumably to hand him over to the Tall Man before returning to wait for the mob.

The police and FBI arrive, as does the entire town screaming for Julia's blood and their missing children. The Nanny hangs herself & Julia is taken to jail, where she is despised and threatened as a child killer.

Julia admits to kidnapping and murdering the children, but the confession is later revealed to be a lie. It transpires that Julia is part of an organization which 'rescues' young children from bad homes and places them with good ones in an attempt to break the cycle of poverty and abuse which passes from one generation to the next. The organization is world-wide and takes children from all over the globe, giving them a chance at having a better life in good homes free of abuse and neglect.

Soon after Jenny watches her mother engage in a drunken fight with the boyfriend before laughing with him over it. Disgusted, Jenny walks off into a nearby field where she finds the Tall Man waiting for her -- Julia's husband who is not dead after all. He takes her to an almost empty house in the nearest city, where Jenny changes into pretty new clothes -- a far cry from her dark and ragged old ones -- and is taken to meet her "new mother". This woman is given documents which change Jenny into Vera, this woman's daughter. When her new mother attempts to give The Tall Man money, he refuses saying that the organization faces massive risks to rescue each child & Julia has sacrificed her life (she may receive the death penalty) to let the children begin again.

In Cold Rock, Jenny's former mother grieves over her missing child that she thinks has run away, the town continues to decline with no hope of change and Julia sits in jail knowing she will never see the light of day again. The FBI and police have stated that with the massive amount of tunnels they will never be able to locate the bodies of the children which Julia 'killed' and left down there.

Jenny/Vera lives in a beautiful home, where her art is encouraged and she has the best of everything. She has begun to talk and seems well adjusted and happy. As she walks to an art class she tells us that she loved all her three mothers -- her birth mother, Julia who gave her a chance of a new life, and her new mother who is providing her with everything she could want. As she crosses a park, she sees David with his new family, which he now accepts as his own and he doesn't recognize Jenny at all. The children who were taken are usually too young to remember their birth parents, Jenny is older and the only one who actively asked to be taken. However, she tells us that she misses her real mother, and despite all, she sometimes thinks to return. Her last though is full of doubt.

Release

In 2012 it premiered at the South by Southwest where it was acquired by Image Entertainment.[5] It received a limited release on August 31, 2012 and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 25, 2012.[1] The movie currently has a 45% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

References

  1. ^ a b U.S. Trailer Premiere for the Tall Man Arrives!, Uncle Creepy, DreadCentral, July 20, 2012
  2. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1658837/business Box office and business for The Tall Man, IMDb, August 25, 2012
  3. ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=tallman.htm
  4. ^ Nesteroff, Greg. "Finding Nelson in The Tall Man". Nelson Star. Black Press. Retrieved Aug 26, 2012.
  5. ^ SXSW Features ‘Girls Against Boys’ and ‘The Tall Man’ Picked Up For Distribution; ‘Barrymore’ To Finally See Light Of Day, Amanda Waltz, The Film Stage, March 13, 2012