In the Electric Mist
Encyclopedia
In the Electric Mist is a 2009 Franco-American drama/mystical film based on the novel In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke
. It is directed by Bertrand Tavernier
, written by Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski, and stars Tommy Lee Jones
in the lead role of Louisiana police detective Dave Robicheaux.
The film has never been released theatrically in the U.S., only in Europe and Asia. A trimmed-down version (102:00 minutes NTSC), cut by the studio, was released direct-to-DVD in the United States. A longer director's cut version (112:23 minutes) was released in the rest of the world and premiered at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival
. In 2009, the director's cut version won the Grand Prix at the first "Festival International du Film Policier de Beaune", which is the continuation of the "Festival du Film Policier de Cognac." It opened on April 15, 2009 in France to positive reviews while reviews for the American version were mixed (60 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes). In December 2009, Bertrand Tavernier
released a book titled Pas à Pas dans la Brume Électrique (Step by Step into The Electric Mist), which is a day-by-day account of the shooting of this movie.
In the Electric Mist is a sequel to 1996's Heaven's Prisoners
. Dave Robicheaux at that time was an ex-homicide detective in the swamplands of Louisiana and was portrayed by Alec Baldwin
.
) is investigating the murder of a young woman and has a chance encounter with a pair of Hollywood stars, Elrod Sykes (Peter Sarsgaard
) and his girlfriend Kelly Drummond (Kelly Macdonald
), who are in the small town to make a Civil War
film.
Due to the erratic driving, Dave determines that Elrod is driving drunk and decides to arrest him. Elrod, objecting to being sent to jail, tells Dave of a decayed corpse that he and Kelly had found in the swamp.
Dave goes to investigate while remembering a murder he had witnessed as a teenager where a chained prisoner was shot in the swamp and disappeared into the bog. The discovery is soon tied to several murders in that area that had occurred recently, mostly to young runaways and prostitutes. The clues seem to point to Julie "Baby Feet" Balboni (John Goodman
) whose ties with the mafia had caused Dave and him to drift apart and become enemies.
Balboni denies knowing the prostitute whose murder is being investigated. With little to go on, Dave visits the film site and meets the producer Michael Goldman (John Sayles
) who states that while Baby Feet is helping to fund the film, he is not a co-producer as he had said.
Meanwhile, Dave's home life is disrupted by Elrod and Kelly, who begin turning up regularly, almost every time with Elrod being drunk. This prompts Dave to take pity on him as he, too, is a struggling alcoholic. His daughter, Alafair (Alana Locke
) looks up to movie star Elrod, but wife Bootsie (Mary Steenburgen
) has concerns.
The discovery of a second body prompts the FBI to become involved in the case. Dave is partnered with agent Rosie Gomez (Justina Machado
). Dave attends a birthday party for Goldman and, though drinking Dr Pepper
, becomes terribly uncoordinated during his drive home and crashes his pickup truck, sending him off in a daze to the forest. There he encounters a camp of Confederate soldiers, and their commanding officer General John Bell Hood
(Levon Helm
) who apparently wishes to help Dave with his journey to solve these murders. When he awakens from his daze in a hospital, Dave learns from Gomez that his drink had been laced with LSD
.
Elrod drunkenly takes a boat out on the Bayou with Kelly, calling Dave when the boat engines get caught in crab nets. Dave gives Kelly his coat, as it is pouring rain, and a mysterious gunman shoots her in the chest, mistaking her for him.
General Hood offers advice again and Dave shakes off the feelings of guilt over Kelly's death. Elrod moves in for a while so Dave can be his AA
sponsor.
Dave's cop friend, Lou Girard, is found dead, apparently by shooting himself with a shotgun.
A story from an alleged pimp corroborates a suspect, Murphy Doucet (Bernard Hocke) who, with his partner Twinkie Lemoyne (Ned Beatty
), are responsible for the death of DeWitt Prejean, the skeleton found in the swamp. Doucet gets out on bail and kidnaps Dave's young daughter Alafair.
Gomez and Dave go to Baby Feet's residence and force him into telling them about a campsite Doucet owns. The pair head there. Gomez is startled by Doucet and instinctively shoots him. Dave plants a throw-away pistol on the unarmed villain to ensure that she is cleared of any charges of murdering him. They free Alafair and return home.
Months later, Dave, who had stopped seeing visions of General Hood after the case was solved determines that he was a figment of his imagination, a lingering spirit to help him through the most difficult case of his life. He moves on with his life, while Baby Feet, according to Dave was arrested for an issue that no one would have suspected, not as a mafia criminal, but as a tax dodger. Elrod too moves on with his life, leaving his alcohol addiction behind; he gives Alafair a small role in the Civil War film, and claims that she had been his salvation.
As the story ends, Alafair is looking through a book on the Civil War when she comes across a photograph of General John Bell Hood and his soldiers. We see a close up of the photo; standing in the back, among the Confederate soldiers, is Dave Robicheaux.
The film opened at fourth place in DVD rentals for the week of March 2–8, 2009, with a rental index of 61.21.
James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke is an American author of mysteries, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won an Edgar Award for Black Cherry Blues and Cimarron Rose . The Robicheaux character has been portrayed twice on screen, first by Alec Baldwin and then Tommy Lee Jones...
. It is directed by Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier is a French director, screenwriter, actor, and producer.-Life and career:Tavernier was born in Lyon, the son of Geneviève and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, several years president of the French PEN club. Tavernier wanted to become a filmmaker since the age of thirteen...
, written by Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski, and stars Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
in the lead role of Louisiana police detective Dave Robicheaux.
The film has never been released theatrically in the U.S., only in Europe and Asia. A trimmed-down version (102:00 minutes NTSC), cut by the studio, was released direct-to-DVD in the United States. A longer director's cut version (112:23 minutes) was released in the rest of the world and premiered at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
. In 2009, the director's cut version won the Grand Prix at the first "Festival International du Film Policier de Beaune", which is the continuation of the "Festival du Film Policier de Cognac." It opened on April 15, 2009 in France to positive reviews while reviews for the American version were mixed (60 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes). In December 2009, Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier
Bertrand Tavernier is a French director, screenwriter, actor, and producer.-Life and career:Tavernier was born in Lyon, the son of Geneviève and René Tavernier, a publicist and writer, several years president of the French PEN club. Tavernier wanted to become a filmmaker since the age of thirteen...
released a book titled Pas à Pas dans la Brume Électrique (Step by Step into The Electric Mist), which is a day-by-day account of the shooting of this movie.
In the Electric Mist is a sequel to 1996's Heaven's Prisoners
Heaven's Prisoners
Heaven's Prisoners is a 1996 feature film drama starring Alec Baldwin, Kelly Lynch, Mary Stuart Masterson, Teri Hatcher and Eric Roberts. It is based on a Dave Robicheaux novel of the same name by James Lee Burke. The film was directed by Phil Joanou...
. Dave Robicheaux at that time was an ex-homicide detective in the swamplands of Louisiana and was portrayed by Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
.
Plot
Iberia Parish Sheriff's Detective Dave Robicheaux (Tommy Lee JonesTommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
) is investigating the murder of a young woman and has a chance encounter with a pair of Hollywood stars, Elrod Sykes (Peter Sarsgaard
Peter Sarsgaard
John Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron...
) and his girlfriend Kelly Drummond (Kelly Macdonald
Kelly Macdonald
Kelly Macdonald is a Scottish actress, known for her role in the independent film Trainspotting and mainstream releases such as Nanny McPhee, Gosford Park, Intermission, No Country for Old Men and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2...
), who are in the small town to make a Civil War
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
film.
Due to the erratic driving, Dave determines that Elrod is driving drunk and decides to arrest him. Elrod, objecting to being sent to jail, tells Dave of a decayed corpse that he and Kelly had found in the swamp.
Dave goes to investigate while remembering a murder he had witnessed as a teenager where a chained prisoner was shot in the swamp and disappeared into the bog. The discovery is soon tied to several murders in that area that had occurred recently, mostly to young runaways and prostitutes. The clues seem to point to Julie "Baby Feet" Balboni (John Goodman
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
) whose ties with the mafia had caused Dave and him to drift apart and become enemies.
Balboni denies knowing the prostitute whose murder is being investigated. With little to go on, Dave visits the film site and meets the producer Michael Goldman (John Sayles
John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter and author.-Early life:Sayles was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary , a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator. He was raised Catholic and took to labeling himself "a Catholic atheist"...
) who states that while Baby Feet is helping to fund the film, he is not a co-producer as he had said.
Meanwhile, Dave's home life is disrupted by Elrod and Kelly, who begin turning up regularly, almost every time with Elrod being drunk. This prompts Dave to take pity on him as he, too, is a struggling alcoholic. His daughter, Alafair (Alana Locke
Alana Locke
Alana Locke is an American child actress of mixed Hispanic, Caucasian, and Mediterranean heritage. She made her film debut with two 2008 films: playing the younger version of Beth in the 2008 horror film One Missed Call and playing Alafair Robicheaux, the daughter of the character played by Tommy...
) looks up to movie star Elrod, but wife Bootsie (Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
) has concerns.
The discovery of a second body prompts the FBI to become involved in the case. Dave is partnered with agent Rosie Gomez (Justina Machado
Justina Machado
Justina Machado is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Vanessa Diaz in the HBO drama series Six Feet Under.-Early life:...
). Dave attends a birthday party for Goldman and, though drinking Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper is a soft drink, marketed as having a unique flavor. The drink was created in the 1880s by Charles Alderton of Waco, Texas and first served around 1885. Dr Pepper was first nationally marketed in the United States in 1904 and is now also sold in Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, Australia ...
, becomes terribly uncoordinated during his drive home and crashes his pickup truck, sending him off in a daze to the forest. There he encounters a camp of Confederate soldiers, and their commanding officer General John Bell Hood
John Bell Hood
John Bell Hood was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Hood had a reputation for bravery and aggressiveness that sometimes bordered on recklessness...
(Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
) who apparently wishes to help Dave with his journey to solve these murders. When he awakens from his daze in a hospital, Dave learns from Gomez that his drink had been laced with LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
.
Elrod drunkenly takes a boat out on the Bayou with Kelly, calling Dave when the boat engines get caught in crab nets. Dave gives Kelly his coat, as it is pouring rain, and a mysterious gunman shoots her in the chest, mistaking her for him.
General Hood offers advice again and Dave shakes off the feelings of guilt over Kelly's death. Elrod moves in for a while so Dave can be his AA
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
sponsor.
Dave's cop friend, Lou Girard, is found dead, apparently by shooting himself with a shotgun.
A story from an alleged pimp corroborates a suspect, Murphy Doucet (Bernard Hocke) who, with his partner Twinkie Lemoyne (Ned Beatty
Ned Beatty
Ned Thomas Beatty is an American actor who has appeared in more than 100 films and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain and a Golden Globe Award; won a Drama Desk Award....
), are responsible for the death of DeWitt Prejean, the skeleton found in the swamp. Doucet gets out on bail and kidnaps Dave's young daughter Alafair.
Gomez and Dave go to Baby Feet's residence and force him into telling them about a campsite Doucet owns. The pair head there. Gomez is startled by Doucet and instinctively shoots him. Dave plants a throw-away pistol on the unarmed villain to ensure that she is cleared of any charges of murdering him. They free Alafair and return home.
Months later, Dave, who had stopped seeing visions of General Hood after the case was solved determines that he was a figment of his imagination, a lingering spirit to help him through the most difficult case of his life. He moves on with his life, while Baby Feet, according to Dave was arrested for an issue that no one would have suspected, not as a mafia criminal, but as a tax dodger. Elrod too moves on with his life, leaving his alcohol addiction behind; he gives Alafair a small role in the Civil War film, and claims that she had been his salvation.
As the story ends, Alafair is looking through a book on the Civil War when she comes across a photograph of General John Bell Hood and his soldiers. We see a close up of the photo; standing in the back, among the Confederate soldiers, is Dave Robicheaux.
Cast
- Tommy Lee JonesTommy Lee JonesTommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
as Dave Robicheaux - John GoodmanJohn GoodmanJohn Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
as Julie 'Baby Feet' Balboni - Peter SarsgaardPeter SarsgaardJohn Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron...
as Elrod Sykes - Kelly MacdonaldKelly MacdonaldKelly Macdonald is a Scottish actress, known for her role in the independent film Trainspotting and mainstream releases such as Nanny McPhee, Gosford Park, Intermission, No Country for Old Men and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2...
as Kelly Drummond - Mary SteenburgenMary SteenburgenMary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
as Bootsie Robicheaux - Justina MachadoJustina MachadoJustina Machado is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Vanessa Diaz in the HBO drama series Six Feet Under.-Early life:...
as Rosie Gomez - Ned BeattyNed BeattyNed Thomas Beatty is an American actor who has appeared in more than 100 films and has been nominated for an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain and a Golden Globe Award; won a Drama Desk Award....
as Twinky LeMoyne - James GammonJames GammonJames Richard Gammon was an American actor, known for playing grizzled "good ol' boy" types in numerous films and television series.-Early life:...
as Ben Hebert - Pruitt Taylor VincePruitt Taylor VincePruitt Taylor Vince is an American award-winning character actor who has made many appearances in film and television.-Personal life:Vince was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana...
as Lou Girard - Levon HelmLevon HelmMark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
as Gen. John Bell HoodJohn Bell HoodJohn Bell Hood was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Hood had a reputation for bravery and aggressiveness that sometimes bordered on recklessness... - Alana LockeAlana LockeAlana Locke is an American child actress of mixed Hispanic, Caucasian, and Mediterranean heritage. She made her film debut with two 2008 films: playing the younger version of Beth in the 2008 horror film One Missed Call and playing Alafair Robicheaux, the daughter of the character played by Tommy...
as Alafair Robicheaux - Buddy GuyBuddy GuyGeorge "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
as Sam “Hogman” Patin - Chukwuma Onwuchekwa as Dewitt Prejean
DVD release
The film was released on DVD on March 3, 2009 and sold 104,902 units which brought in $1,905,214 in revenue.The film opened at fourth place in DVD rentals for the week of March 2–8, 2009, with a rental index of 61.21.