A stellar cast and hurtling tale of fate mark this mournful rural drama
Blood On Her Name Opens Feb. 28 from Vertical Entertainment
A man’s crumpled body lies lifeless on the concrete floor of an auto shop, his blood forming a growing black pool. Phone in hand, a woman starts to dial 911, changes her mind, and closes the open garage door.
The narrative of Blood on Her Name makes a specific, conscious choice to open immediately after the deed is done, withholding any relevant information for the audience to assess how or why Leigh Tiller (Bethany Anne Lind) has killed a man. Crime of passion? Revenge? Self defense? Accident? We only know that she did kill him, and assess her by the choices she makes from that point forward.
Unable to bear the thought of inflicting the man’s loved ones with the torture of uncertainty, she makes the fateful decision to leave the body where they’ll find it — setting off a terrible chain of events which will embroil two families to an inevitable confrontation. Bad decisions. Good intentions.
Matthew Pope’s spirit-crushing directorial debut shows a deft hand and knack for storytelling, with escalating stakes, gnawing tension, and an air of doomed melancholy. It’s carried by an incredible and fairly small cast. Bethany Anne Lind is very much putting on a tour de force as the tortured killer. Supporting her are Will Patton as her police officer father (with whom relations are strained), and Elisabeth Röhm as the girlfriend of the deceased, all three giving weighty, conflicted performances as they find themselves in a desperate struggle not only for survival, but to retain their humanity.
A/V Out.
