Black Water Reviews

The moody BLACK WATER takes place in a Kafkaesque Deep South where the mistrustful natives don't speak our language. This steamy, Hitchcockian thriller about a not-so-innocent man on the lam succeeds better in capturing the offbeat personalities involved than in maintaining a consistent level of spine-tingling tension. On his way to a fishing vacation at a swank resort, British tax lawyer Wolfgang Leighton (Julian Sands) stops at a sleazy Tennessee motel where he accidentally overhears the murder of bank teller Sally Lomax (Denise Crosby) by her two criminal accomplices. He sneaks away in the night, unaware that Sally has stashed the loot in his rental car. After a vehicular run-in with the killers, a jittery Wolfgang picks up a teen hitchhiker, Minnie (Stacey Dash), who serves as his guide through the backroads and bayous. Wolfgang reads details of Sally's death in the paper and spots the murderers' car parked nearby. Minnie warns that he may have something the criminals want and suggests an escape route; Wolfgang agrees, but when the mysterious automobile intersects their path, he accuses Minnie of betraying him and tosses her out into a downpour. Things only get worse when he returns to the motel, hoping to find the money and disentangle himself from the whole mess. Instead, he's arrested and can't convince the redneck police he isn't in cahoots with the robbers. While in jail, Wolfgang refuses to provide an alibi for Minnie, who's been accused of an unrelated out-of-town crime. He's eventually released on the whim of Judge Prescott (Rod Steiger). Wolfgang finally does the right thing and paves the way for Minnie's release; when she shows up at the airport, he hands her the keys to his rental car. Wolfgang gets on a plane and flies away from his weekend of terror, while Minnie walks off with the loot. Long on atmosphere but a little short on thrills, BLACK WATER is the latest in a long line of Dixie Visitors' Council horror movies (JACKSON COUNTY JAIL, POOR PRETTY EDDIE) that portray the South as one big speed trap awaiting unwary travelers. What distinguishes this film (at the same time it diminishes audience sympathy) is the sniveling anti-hero. Not only is he imprudent--to put it kindly--but he also regularly sweats with fear, twice betrays the young woman who saves his skin, and generally acts in a manner from which viewers will want to distance themselves. Overall, this is a fairly well-handled screen adaptation of Hans Werner Kettenbach's novel Minnie. Among the film's more entertaining elements are the cornpone rogues who torment the mewling Wolfgang: the stealthy sheriff and the D.A., so eager to settle the case you have to question whether they're sniffing for the money, too; deputy Kiefer, who seems to be the evil twin of Sheriff Gillespie from IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT; and a music-loving judge who determines a defendant's innocence with a game of "Name That Tune." BLACK WATER dawdles over incidental details, especially the May-December fling between Wolfgang and Minnie, but what it lacks in edge-of-your-seat excitement it makes up for with a sustained mood of nagging uncertainty and plaintive longing. (Graphic violence, extensive nudity, extreme profanity.)