From afar, the peaceful community appears to be aglow from luminaria, the traditional paper bag lanterns used to light the Christ child’s path on Christmas Eve. But this small town’s latest resident (Christopher Abbott) is anything but godly. The opening scene — a stranger walks into a bar after hours, gets refused service, and comes back shooting — has a faint smell of The Limey to it. The rest of the picture fairly reeks of Blood SImple. Neither would be objectionable had director Jamie M. Dagg and writers Benjamin China and Paul China put anything like a fresh spin on their familiar noir themes. Everything comes up derivative once our hitman is done hitting on the widow (Imogen Poots) of his latest hit. And other than paying tribute to Nick Ray’s The Lusty Men, I cannot for the life of me justify the need of making our modest hero (Jon Bernthal) into a retired Brahma-buster. (2017) — Scott Marks
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