A movie gem

Last night, we watched In the Electric Mist on DVD, the only (legal) way you can catch this film in the U.S. As its IMBD entry implies (and further online research confirmed), this movie never played in theaters here. It went straight to DVD, as many films do.

Most of the direct-to-DVD movies I've watched deserved that fate.

This one does not.

I highly recommend you pick it up at Amazon or your own favorite source of DVDs and give it a look.

The movie is an adaptation of James Lee Burke's novel, In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead. It follows Burke's best-known character, Detective Dave Robicheaux, through a complex plot that links two sets of crimes, one current and one decades old.

Burke's prose at its best is lyrical, magical, evocative, and powerful. For my money, when he's at the top of his game he's as good as anyone writing in English today. Period.

As I watched this movie, each scene captured perfectly for me the way I'd imagined the setting while reading the book. Tommy Lee Jones flawlessly portrayed the nobility, strength, fragility, and underlying deep rage of Robicheaux.

Don't miss this one.