BEFORE: It's funny that the other day, I had an occasion to read that Robert Frost poem, you know, the one about "The Road Not Taken"? It was a crossword puzzle answer, but I needed to confirm the exact title, so I looked it up online - a lot of people think the name of the poem is "The Road Less Traveled", but it's not. It's about deciding between two paths in a yellow wood, there's a fork in the path and for once, Yogi Berra's advice turns out to be not so helpful - he had said "When you get to a fork in the road, take it." but it turns out he was just giving directions to his own house, not dispensing mildly confusing life advice. But Frost was detailing a dilemma, because at first both paths look JUST as good, equal in most discernible ways, and also he knows that paths have a tendency to loop back on themselves, or maybe join back together later on, so in the end, it really doesn't matter EXCEPT for the fact that one path is a little less worn and was nearly begging to be walked down. He knows that no matter which path he takes, there could naturally be some regret, and he'll always be wondering what would have happened if he'd chosen differently, that's kind of a given. You know, it could just be about a guy out on a walk, but many people have seen it as general good advice, because walking on the less-beaten path has made a difference in his life, and Frost doesn't even tell us if that was a GOOD thing in the end, or a BAD thing, all we know is that the outcome is different, but really, that's the nature of ANY choice you make. In the little things we see reflections of the bigger things, after all, and one choice has consequences, so the poem ends up being both satisfying and maddening because he's told us everything and nothing at the same time. Maybe because he doesn't know his own future himself?
Anyway, I'm pulling a "Robert Frost" myself, I did not trod down the "Killers of a Flower Moon" path, I have saved that path for another day. I've learned a lot about paths myself, you can look down a path as far as you can, and still not know where it leads, because there are going to be twists and turns. And TWO PATHS? Jeez, what a luxury to have only two paths, because really, there are dozens, hundreds of paths to walk down and Frost was right, they have a tendency to connect with other paths and loop back on themselves even, and also you're always going to wonder whether it was a better idea or a worse idea to take the one you did. Self-doubt will kill you if you let it, it will eat you from the inside and the only way to fight back is to either be proud of the choices you made, or at least have the appearance of being able to defend them. Remember that no matter where you go, there you are, and it's YOUR walk and YOUR choice of path to take. Also, keep track of where you've walked and maintain the ability to get back to that other path in the future if you need to. Good advice for both walking on paths and major life choices.
So Domenick Lombartozzi carries over from "The Yards" and tomorrow my path's going to link up with the planned one again, so did I take the road less traveled by, or did I only convince myself that I did? It doesn't really matter, because I doubt that I'll come back this way again. Thank you, Mr. Frost, wherever you are, for mansplaining walking down paths for us all.
THE PLOT: Tom Nichols is a hardened New England detective, unflinching in his pursuit of a case where nothing is as it seems and it begins to dismantle the illusions in his own life.
AFTER: This is a crime drama that takes place somewhere sort of rural, but there's still a modern police department with a forensics lab. Georgia? Western Massachusetts? This game is part of the fun for me... There are upscale houses and realtor seminars, but also drug stash houses and what my wife and I jokingly call "murder sheds". So you know, somewhere in America. Wikipedia says it's set in Maine, so let's go with that. Scarborough, Maine, which is only weird because one character mentions an upcoming trip to Scotland that ends in Scarborough Castle, which is supposedly haunted. This just can't be a coincidence, I think it's meant to be symbolic, like that castle, the town of Scarborough is haunted, perhaps there's more going on in the town than you think, things that you can't see but you can feel.
Detective Tom Nichols is also haunted by his past, or the choices he made in another city, Philadelphia, apparently his police partner of six years was a dirty cop, and they don't say a lot about it, but that experience might be still affecting him, did he rat out his partner, or was he considered guilty by association? How do you work side-by-side with someone for six years and not realize they're corrupt? Lots of questions and few answers, but really, the whole film is like that.
A realtor woman, Summer, is found stabbed to death in one of those upscale houses, her boyfriend (also a realtor) found her there, and he's got to keep showing the house to people after that, like nothing's wrong. Even people who are pretending to be interested JUST so they can see a murder scene. Because America. A little digging by the detectives reveals that she was still sleeping with her ex-husband, which her boyfriend didn't seem to know. Usually it IS the boyfriend in cases like this, because he found out she was sleeping around. Or, you know, maybe the ex-husband or maybe it's somebody else. The police literally place bets on whose DNA they're going to find, and probably there's another round of betting over who killed her. Keep it classy, cops.
There are dozens of red herrings here, more information comes to light after the autopsy, more after video camera footage is reviewed, and then of course more after the police run background checks on everyone. Not all of this is relevant, but hey, maybe some cases are like this, there are maybe many paths a detective has to walk down before getting something like a definitive answer. This isn't "Law & Order", where the crime has to be solved in 47 minutes on a weekly basis, we've got a couple hours here so there's really a chance to do a deep dive. Maybe a little TOO deep, but that's a debatable point.
Detectives also check out Summer's real estate transactions, she sold six houses and got NO commissions for that, like isn't that why you get into real estate in the first place? But Will Grady, her boyfriend, and Will's mother have an explanation for that, her commissions were going into a blind trust so that Summer could buy a house of her own some day, maybe this tracks, who's to say? Or maybe there's more to the story.
One of those rural dirtbags who showed up at the murder scene comes around, he's got a bone to pick with Will Grady, because he thinks the realtor forced his father out of his own farm, leading him to commit suicide, so there's some history of shady dealings buying up real estate. Great, another thing for the detectives to check out - but when Nichols just scratches the surface and the paths lead back to possibly corrupt cops, is he following the right leads, or is he being influenced by his past and possibly seeing things that aren't really there? A shoot-out with a suspect goes wrong, and the police just want to pin the murder on the dead guy and close the case. Who benefits from that? And should Nichols follow the evidence or the instructions of his superior officers? There you go, another fork in the road and no matter which one he chooses, he'll always be wondering what would have happened if he chose the other.
It really takes a long time to get the whole story here, or maybe it just feels like it takes a long time. Is the payoff worth it? Well, that depends on you, I suppose. At least everything makes some sense at the end, I can't say that about every movie. (Looking at YOU, David Lynch...). This movie did pretty well on Netflix about a year and a half ago, I would imagine that interest has kind of cooled a bit since then, but I'm glad I got to it before it scrolled off the service. For me it was worth watching, worth clearing off the list while it was convenient for me to do so, if I had to track this one down somewhere else, nah, I don't think it would have been worth that.
I still don't know why it's called "Reptile", though, maybe to just distinguish itself from other crime movies with names like "No Good Deed" or "Murder in the First"?
Also starring Benicio del Toro (last seen in "Fearless"), Justin Timberlake (last heard in "Trolls Band Together"), Eric Bogosian (last seen in "Igby Goes Down"), Alicia Silverstone (last seen in "Senior Year"), Frances Fisher (last seen in "Another Kind of Wedding"), Ato Essandoh (last seen in "Blood Diamond"), Michael Carmen Pitt (last seen in "Ghost in the Shell"), Karl Glusman (last seen in "Nocturnal Animals"), Mike Pniewski (last seen in "My Future Boyfriend"), Matilda Lutz, Catherine Dyer (last seen in "The Blind Side"), Tom Nowicki (ditto), Thad Luckinbill (last seen in "12 Strong"), Michael Beasley (last seen in "Allegiant"), Amy Parrish (ditto), JC Capone, Sky Ferreira (last seen in "Elvis & Nixon"), James Devoti (last seen in "Middle Men"), Elizabeth Houston, Jesse C. Boyd (last seen in "Hillbilly Elegy"), Owen Teague (last seen in "To Leslie"), Matt Medrano, Michael Rene Walton, Mel Pralgo, Steve Wedan (last seen in "I, Tonya"), Africa Miranda, Danny Bevins, Bonita Elery, Dianna Catterton, Kathryn Boyd Brolin (last seen in "Hall Pass"), Laura Whyte (last seen in "Lizzie"), Lee Perkins, Kurt Yue (last seen in "Jerry and Marge Go Large"), Monique Grant (last seen in "Brothers"), Elena Varela (last seen in "Savages"), Jon Levine, Dani Deetté (last seen in "Richard Jewell"), Jp Lambert, Kathleen Hogan (last seen in "Irresistible"), Victor Rasuk (last seen in "Being Flynn"), Tiffany Fallon, Deena Beasley (last seen in "Fist Fight"), Steven McCormack, Brooke Jaye Taylor (last seen in "Freaky"), Regina Ting Chen, Grant Weaver (last seen in "The 15:17 to Paris"), Martin Singer.
RATING: 6 out of 10 slices of pizza (sausage AND pepperoni, nice!)
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