Writing yesterday about the movie Small Town Crime, which I had just seen the night before, reminded me of another movie about a crime in a small town and the efforts by law enforcement and other interested parties to solve it. This one I saw almost exactly a year ago on Netflix’s streaming service. I just checked and it’s still there. It’s called Shimmer Lake.
Like Small Town Crimes, Shimmer Lake features a lesser-known actor, Benjamin Walker, in the lead, while some of the supporting roles are played by more familiar faces, including Rainn Wilson, Ron Livingston, and Rob Corddry. What makes Shimmer Lake unusual is that it unfolds in reverse chronological order. The first scenes take place on a Friday, three days after a killing and a bank robbery gone wrong in which the local sheriff was shot. Everyone is still scratching their heads as to just what happened and who was responsible.
Then there are scenes that take place the previous day, Thursday, followed by scenes on Wednesday, and finally Tuesday, the day the crimes were committed. That’s when we finally see for ourselves how everything went down, and discover what the investigators had still not figured out in previous scenes set later in the week.
If that reminds you of Memento, you’re right inasmuch as the two movies share a narrative device, but Shimmer Lake is not as fraught or confusing as Memento. It’s also more darkly comic, in a Fargo kind of way.
If I’d been blogging last December, I would have posted a recommendation of Shimmer Lake as soon as I saw it. Better late than never.