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Show | Bae WASATCH COUNTY COURIER APRIL 11, 2001 REVIEW ‘As Wise as Serpents _ Brigham City STARS WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY RICHARD | DUTCHER. STARRING DUTCHER, TAYVA PATCH, MATTHEW A. BROWN, WILFORD BRIMLEY, CARRIE MORGAN, JOHN ENOS, ~ FRANK GERRISH, JEFF JOHNSON AND — WENDY HOOP. Woodruff (Matthew A. Brown, who co- Century small town life that Brigham — Young, the community’s namesake, “would likely recognize, both for its © bottles lined up on a fence. Wes is an awful shot, which prompts his intro-., spection about a rabbit he shot as a kid, and his discovery that some part of him liked how it felt to end a life. “I bucolic beauty and its dark underside. just realized I hadn’t pointed a gun at Gimping his way through a murder investigation that shifts from the abandoned body of a young California woman, the apparent victim of a drifter, anything or anyone since that moment,” the sheriff says. Looking in on a Mormon Sunday School class in her effort to penetrate the culture and learn something that to ‘local’ suspects after ‘two additional killings, is Sheriff Wes Clayton (Dutcher might point to the killer, Meredith himself). Clayton’s injured leg is the — gets amiably conned by an assertive gospel doctrine teacher (Peg Carter) painful vestige of an automobile accident — _that‘killed his wife and child. In his agonizing pursuit of a truth that damages his world view and ‘reveals his denial, Dutcher’s Clayton is eee eb reminiscent of Michael things Clayton, y- ET Y mee TARE OPE gates FF ME LR Mormon »; any to Wes but like Sing’ to’ that scene, including RESERVATIONS REQUESTED the Dutcher’s tortured performance as Wes Clayton leads a surprisingly tight the screenplay with a whole school of and able ensemble of mostly Utahns. Tavya Patch is FBI agent Meredith Cole, the outsider and sympathetic obvious red herrings that offer dubious distractions en route to the bag- : ging of the big fish. Bloody murder © and religious redemption are a tough sell, but Dutcher does better at fusing . _ the two than one might expect. conflicted retired Sheriff Stu SUNDAY, APRIL 15TH 10 AM UNTIL 3 PM culture. But the events lead- unmasking of the killer, are problematic and not wholly convincing. Dutcher stocks the shifting eddies of community. Wilford Brimley portrays Ph (435) 654-1199 typical Mormon bishop, Wes skips Sunday Sheriff Wes Clayton (Richard Dutcher), rear, School to hole up— allows Deputy Terry Woodruff (Matthew Brown) in the bishop’s a look at a murder victim in Brigham City. office—doing both City marks director Dutcher’s deliberGod’s and the sheriff's somewhat grisate intrusion into riskier and more ly business. rewarding cinematic territory. Not Dutcher is not afraid of provoking necessarily because he grounds him- _ simple emotion of unexpected intensity. self here in a mainstream genre—the When Clayton arrives at the home of thriller. But because he probes more | the parents of a murdered girl (Janice deeply and daringly into his characPower and Rick Macy), as the official ters’ inner lives than he did in his police bearer of bad news, they mistake — debut film, God’s Army, an admirable his visit as ecclesiastical. Before he can chronicle of Mormon missionaries in speak, an inopportune telephone call Los Angeles, weakened by its miliambushes Clayton’s intentions of lettaristically misbegotten title and over- — ting them down gently and the father simplified ending. - dissolves in the sheriff’s arms. In Brigham City, Dutcher deals The movie’s climactic subtly with the blurred lines of church. scene—played out in an LDS sacraand state in Mormon Utah; with the ment meeting—has a surprisingly sus- parallel naivete of both the native and penseful wallop that may work emothe outsider; with the uncomfortable tionally even for those uninitiated in | Bs = Real Estate seemingly contradictory instructions might have explained some by a bum leg. Photographed in and around Mapleton and Springville in central Utah, Brigham — skeptic introduced into a tight-knit faith DENISE PECK Wardley GMAC ye wise as serpents and harmless as . doves.” The tension between these = ~ ried and humanized nity that has kept it at bay; and with _ the eventual recognition by good bee ple of their darker sides. From this point, your agent call identify the price range and payment schedule for which a lender Your — cann help by ‘aan cal- will find you qualified. This is | culations based on what you earn, another advantage of working with | what you owe, and what you can a real estate professional.° into reading aloud a Bible verse in — _ the disillusioned professor in Wonder ~ Boys (2000), also har- encroachment of violence in a contmu- | to spend on HOLS each month. which Jesus advises his disciples: “Be Douglas’ Grady Trip, - to spend- especially if, like the vast majority of people, you will be asking a lender to help you finance the Bs, : payment, — A City, not the actual city in Box Elder County, but a fictional composite of 21st amount you can reasonably afford put forth as a down These calculations determine the amount you can comfortably afford © | a may be a sociopath and a murderer. _ This is Richard Dutcher’s Brigham The first matter to consider when you plan a home purchase is the Denise Peck Sor shooting range in an urban cop picture, Wes and Terry sharpen their marksmanship skills, using cans and model (435) 654-1199 | | that substitutes for the obligatory seemingly areey i Ree REAL ESTATE CORNER {DO YOU QUALIFY? | Playing a difficult role, Brown here is a bit coy and occluded. (While Brown is the movie’s featured second banana, it is Patch as Meredith Cole who steals the co-starring role.) Several scenes in Brigham City advance and energize a screenplay that flirts with formula. In a weed field petty sins and other secrets. And one role ww: closet-factory. com starred in God’s Army) goads the sher- Tom | Among the ordinary and appealing faces we find in the church pews of his congregation are those whose eyes conceal consummate fora FREE design consultation in your eis een circumstances. Ed. Clayton’s deputy Terry Call the Industry pe : youngest old man I have ever known.” sheriff is also a Mormon bishop and people are constantly calling him by ‘the wrong title in the least appropriate convert-in-progress, young, impetuous - _ iff with the accusation that he is “the Review by Paul Swenson he town’s - Carrie Morgan is Clayton’s tart and resourceful secretary, Peg, and Jon Enos is Peg’s boyfriend and Mormon " KK Udall, whose personal habits bring him into conflict with his religious faith. — We come to your home. We show you our exquisite collection of imishes and options. And custom design a Cioset, Office, Garage or Entertainment Center perfect for you. Each system is individually handcrafted at our state of the ari factary. Then it is neatly and expertly sage wes Ata price you can afford. ~6BheBoartnn & RESTAURANT 123§ WARM SPRINGS ROAD MIDWAY UTAH 435 654-1400 |