Read Time:2 Minute, 8 Second
At night, when many of us are sleeping, things take on a different tone. Instead of businessmen hustling to meetings or moms picking their kids up from school, it’s a world of late-night revelers, late shift workers, and those who are just passing by. And in Midnight in the Switchgrass, a law enforcement team sets out to solve some of the crimes that take place after dark.
Midnight in the Switchgrass investigates a growing number of unsolved murders in Florida with state officer Byron Crawford (Emile Hirsch) and FBI agent Rebecca Lombardi (Megan Fox). More and more troubled young women are going missing—and later found murdered—and while some people are quick to overlook their deaths, Crawford refuses to forget them. So he teams up with Lombardi, who’s spent months trying to lure the killer and isn’t ready to give up. With a teenage girl missing—most likely the killer’s next victim—they ignore their superiors’ orders and continue the operation.
As Agent Lombardi closes in on the killer, the tension builds. She’s confident that she’ll be able to stop him—to keep him from hurting anyone else. But, of course, things never go as planned in the movies—and she and Crawford end up in a race against time.
At the heart of the story is a chilling look at the men who target the seemingly invisible ones—the troubled teenage runaways, the women who take to the streets to make a living. They’re easy targets because few people will notice they’re gone—and even fewer will miss them. Even the police tend to look the other way—to spend their time on more important cases. But there are some—like Crawford and Lombardi—who refuse to let these women be forgotten.
The problem, however, is that this eerie tale isn’t especially well told. It’s loaded with holes and annoying flashback sequences, and the acting is often laughably over-the-top. One might expect more from a film that includes stars like Bruce Willis, Emile Hirsch, Lukas Haas, and even Megan Fox—that the list of familiar names would give it more than just a little extra recognition. But the storytelling doesn’t live up to the names on the cast list.
Midnight in the Switchgrass offers some interesting possibilities: a dark, suspenseful story, a likable cast. But while it’s definitely dark and haunting, that isn’t necessarily enough to make it worth seeking out.
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Kristin Dreyer Kramer has been writing in some form or another (usually when she was supposed to be doing something else) since the ripe old age of ten—when she, her cousin, and their two Cabbage Patch Dolls formed the Poo Authors’ Club. After a short career in advertising, Kristin got sick of always saying nice things about stuff that didn’t deserve it—so now she spends her days criticizing things, and she’s much happier for it.
Since creating NightsAndWeekends.com in February of 2002, Kristin has spent her life surrounded by piles and piles of books and movies—so many that her office has become a kind of entertainment obstacle course.
As if her writing and editing responsibilities for N&W.com weren’t enough to keep her out of trouble, Kristin also hosts a number of weekly radio shows: Reel Discovery, Shelf Discovery, and On the Marquee. She’s also a proud member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (CriticsChoice.com), the Central Ohio Film Critics Association (COFCA.org), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS.org), and the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC.Wordpress.com).
Kristin lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Anna. She welcomes questions, comments, and fan mail at kdk@nightsandweekends.com.
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Kristin Dreyer Kramer has been writing in some form or another (usually when she was supposed to be doing something else) since the ripe old age of ten—when she, her cousin, and their two Cabbage Patch Dolls formed the Poo Authors’ Club. After a short career in advertising, Kristin got sick of always saying nice things about stuff that didn’t deserve it—so now she spends her days criticizing things, and she’s much happier for it.
Since creating NightsAndWeekends.com in February of 2002, Kristin has spent her life surrounded by piles and piles of books and movies—so many that her office has become a kind of entertainment obstacle course.
As if her writing and editing responsibilities for N&W.com weren’t enough to keep her out of trouble, Kristin also hosts a number of weekly radio shows: Reel Discovery, Shelf Discovery, and On the Marquee. She’s also a proud member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (CriticsChoice.com), the Central Ohio Film Critics Association (COFCA.org), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS.org), and the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC.Wordpress.com).
Kristin lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Anna. She welcomes questions, comments, and fan mail at kdk@nightsandweekends.com.
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