Sweet Virigina

When I went into it all I saw was Jon Bernthal on the poster with a shotgun. After watching a few episodes of his new series, The Punisher on Netflix, I feel I was misleading myself going into it. After all, the place I saw it in, the IFC Center does not really do action movies (unless they are foreign)

So the movie has a slow quiet place the mimic the area the film is based in. A moutianous region of virgina in a small town ( the name of the movie itself is the hotel in which Jon’s charater manages)

Bernthal plays a small town American who use to be a rodeo superstar until getter no trampled by the horse too many times have him a degenerative miscule disorder learning to shakes. He seems contempt with his life having an affair with one of the town folks and looking after a young teenage girl who works for him, but proving how small the world can be, he just happens to get tangled up in a murder mystery that shakes up the town.

Berthal has a quiet power to him. He looks like he can handle himself in a fight at the same time shows a sweet and caring side. It’s something he does well in a lot of movies and it works in this one two.

Hes not the only star in the movie, nor is he the complete center of attention as the movie’s plot is about a wife who is fed up with her husband and does the unspeakable to him and gets nothing in return, which is bad when she has to pay her dues for it.

Its a well crafted film. It’s one of those pictures that speaks loundly without saying much. Not a lot of talk to explain what’s going on just enough to paint the picture and it’s a beautiful one.