Maika Monroe in In Cold Light.Elevation Pictures/Supplied
In Cold Light
Directed by Maxime Giroux
Written by Patrick Whistler
Starring Maika Monroe, Allan Hawco and Troy Kotsur
Classification 14A; 96 minutes
Opens in theatres Feb. 27
The first English-language feature from French-Canadian filmmaker Maxime Giroux (2014’s Felix and Meira), In Cold Light, signals the director’s decisive turn toward the thriller genre. Starring Maika Monroe (Longlegs, It Follows), the film centres around Ava – a young woman recently released from prison after being incarcerated for drug offences – as she tries to reclaim her position within her former narcotics business.
Bound by the shame (internalized and otherwise) and trauma of witnessing her mother’s drowning as a child, Ava is welcomed home by her twin brother, Tom (Jesse Irving), while held at an emotional arm’s length by her ex-rodeo-star father, Will (CODA’s Oscar-winning actor Troy Kotsur). It is a tense emotional landscape further complicated by Ava’s suspicions about who set her up to be caught, as well as the power struggle playing out with her former drug operation.
Set against the juxtaposed backdrops of the picturesque Albertan plains, the insular social world of the rodeo circuit and the imposing brutalist architecture of the province’s cityscapes, the Calgary-filmed In Cold Light is wonderfully lensed by cinematographer Sara Mishara, a frequent Giroux collaborator. It’s within this perfect set of landscapes that the sudden and violent murder of one of Ava’s loved ones (and her subsequent framing for the crime) plays out with a tonal mix of gritty realism and poetic subjectivity.
It is a shame, then, that the film’s script too often fails the talents of its actors and their well-constructed world. In Cold Light is tautly paced at first – in its opening moments, we are placed directly into the real-time anxiety that Ava is experiencing, her resilience and physicality portrayed with just the right amount of tenacity and vulnerability from Monroe. However, the plotting is unable to sustain the edge-of-your-seat rush of its tense action, and the film’s writing stalls near its midpoint.
Despite the later unevenness of the film, Ava’s relationship with her father, played out with welcome clarity by Kotsur and Monroe, is certainly In Cold Light’s most successful aspect. One notable scene combines a novel use of lighting with an intense conversation in sign language between the pair. It further excavates the long-held fractures and mutual resentments between father and daughter, with striking emotional impact and compelling style.
In spite of the strength of such performances, In Cold Light struggles to sustain its suspense, leaving its potential only partially realized. The film oscillates between tense, affecting scenes and all-too-glaring narrative lulls, resulting in a thriller that, despite the promise of its early propulsive energy, isn’t able to land with the narrative finality it needs.