The Quarry

"The Quarry" is a slow-burn Western noir built around terrific but understated performances by Michael Shannon and Shea Whigham.

This is usually the kind of movie that I want to soak into. I like these small-town noirs and anything with Michael Shannon usually gets a thousand bonus points from me, but this film was more just OK.

There are just two key ingredients, and they're not enough to make a meal.

One note portrayals, skin deep characters, and a glacial pace all combine to prevent The Quarry from succeeding either as a slow-burn thriller or a message-oriented drama.

There is something affecting about "The Quarry," even if it doesn't quite fully sustain its spare worldview, and despite the storytelling becoming increasingly cluttered by the end.

"The Quarry" is so diagrammed that it uses its undernourished dark-side-of-the-heartland atmosphere to excuse the fact that nothing of note is really taking place.

With this film many of the best moments are spent watching and absorbing two wily pros like Shannon and Whigham work out a scene.

The Quarry's exploration of fascinating moral ambiguity is carried by stellar performances from Whigham and Shannon.

The Quarry does enough to pass as an absorbing, if slightly under-stuffed drama of the evil that men do.

The film's weighty spiritual inquiries may suggest we're on a narrative arc toward a heart-warming redemption. But Teems and Brotzman are braver storytellers than that.