Midnight in the Switchgrass follows FBI agent Rebecca Lombardi (Megan Fox) and Florida detective Byron Craw (Emile Hirsch) who team up to catch a serial killer. The film marks producer Randall Emmett's directorial debut.
One wonky crime thriller coming right up! There's potential here honestly, but the script holds too many cliches, and there's no tension until the third act. I'm convinced writer Alan Horsnail either watched all the greats — stitching together the pieces he liked from each one — or had just watched The Little Things, and decided that was the film to emulate.
The script is too uneven. character backstories are underdeveloped, the emotional poignancy is completely absent, and plot points lack coherency. There's a scene where the victim walks past Willis in complete disarray, and he simply ignores her. She's snatched up within a 7-foot radius of him while he sits in his car, not paying attention to his surroundings. Sir, you are a federal agent -— help this kid. The editing is probably worse than the script. Continuity issues, like having Lombardi sip coffee in one shot, then having the cup on the table in another, and that continues throughout the entire scene. Storylines also have to fight for screen time, and there are too many tonal shifts. The film walks the line of a depressing cop narrative while also trying to create this profound character study — when in reality it's not doing anything? I'm confused about what message this film wanted to say about sexual violence against women.
A-LIST casting, D-LIST acting. Bruce Willis showed up for the paycheck, and that was it. Willis barely had screen time and was a fucking zombie through that small run. How he managed to snag a spot on the poster is beyond me. Emile Hirsch is metaphorically shaking because he carried this entire film, and I mean carried. Lucas Haas, too. The pair deliver very subtle but potent performances. I wished the script would've been better for their sake. Megan Fox also came to work. She delivers a surprisingly decent performance (stating this as a fan of Megan Fox) of a badass cop trying to do right by these missing girls and looks fucking flawless while doing so. She takes the script seriously, and it pays off for her. The true breakout star is her beau, Colson Baker (MGK) — I'm looking forward to his acting career.
Inept direction, underdeveloped script, incongruous editing — honestly, I'm just here for Megan Fox.
