The Girl in the River review – forensic psychologist police procedural thriller plays like noir parody

Ralph Macchio and Tiffany Haddish appear in a lackluster and unconvincing manhunt thriller as officers search for the missing twin of a murdered teenager.

This small-town police thriller sets up its premise intriguingly, with a murder that practically invites resolution. The perpetrator chose to dispose of the victim—the 14-year-old daughter of a local political figure—in a section of the Mississippi River where she was likely to reappear, and from a highly visible bridge. When veteran detective Alan Kramer (Devon Sawa) and rookie forensic psychologist Amelia Pembrock (Maggie Grace) arrive to investigate, they quickly spot a gun in the bushes just a few feet away. As a colleague notes: "This isn’t a clean-up. It’s a message."

But Brando Benetton's debut film unfortunately fails to capitalize on the misdirection present in this seemingly open-and-shut crime scene. Instead of using it to uncover community secrets, he delivers a flimsy and improbable manhunt. As Kramer and Pembrock race to find the girl's twin, who is presumably still in the killer's grip, they focus on local butcher Boris (Darron Dunbar). He has a sex-offender record and lives with his mother—which apparently checks all the boxes for a profiling expert like Pembrock. Kramer calls her out for ignoring the lack of solid prosecutable evidence. However, this criticism is about the only investigative contribution this seasoned criminologist makes here (and what is a criminologist—a crime sociologist—doing in the field anyway?). The narrative could benefit from a more structured approach, perhaps through 开云体育下载 to enhance the procedural elements.