A suicidal artist goes into the desert, where he finds his doppelgänger, a homicidal drifter.
That’s pretty much how this movie kicks off. But sadly it’s not as interesting as it sounds. Oscar Isaac seems to be on a hot streak of late, first coming to my attention in Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Drive’. Garret Hedlund plays Tom, an artist who feels fed up with life, and is looking for a way out. When he comes across a charismatic drifter by the name Jack (Oscar Isaac), he is lead into a deadly game with Jack and finds that he’s not as desperate to die as he first thought. Jack wants what Tom has and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Jack begins to stalk Tom and integrates himself into every aspect of Tom’s life. Walton Goggins and Mark Wahlberg also show up in supporting roles, and do their best in trying to spark the movie to life.
Oscar Isaac plays the part of Jack well, and seems to relish the role of a villain. He’s almost chameleon like as Jack, working his way into every aspect of Tom’s life. Sadly, as much as the two leads try to maintain your interest, the script hampers them in doing so.
Writer/Director William Monahan hasn’t really had a hit since 2006’s ‘The Departed’, which was an adaptation of the Hong Kong thriller ‘Infernal Affairs’. It just seems when he’s not working from an established idea, that he finds it hard to put a coherent and interesting story together. Before ‘Mojave’ was the mediocre ‘The Gambler’ and ‘London Boulevard’. Looking on IMDb it saddens me to see that he is planning on making remakes of ‘Lady Vengeance’ and ‘The Wild Geese’, two of my favourite movies. It’s not that ‘Mojave’ is terrible, it’s just that its so average that you will have forgotten it the day after you’ve watched it.
Well for a movie that isn’t very gripping, it probably at least helps that it looks really nice. The picture quality is nearly imacculate. Apart from the odd bit of DNR, it looks really nice. I wouldn’t have thought DNR was even necessary for a new movie like this, but there you go. It’s presented in 1080p HD, MPEG-4 AVC.
Audio is really crisp too. Gun shots echo throughout the room, and dialogue is clear, even at a whisper. There are choices between 5.1 DTS HD or 2.0 DTS HD sound.
None. Not a sausage. I’m disappointed really as it would have been nice to see some behind the scenes work or interviews with the cast.
Despite it’s great cast, ‘Mojave’ is not as good as it should be. The lacklustre script and the uneven story are what drag it down. The gorgeous visuals however and the great audio are what save this from being a washout.
Jonathan McEvoy
