There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Peter Stormare. The first time I saw him^ was in another (homespun) murder-story: 'Fargo'. There, he fit the bill perfectly, but here... I don't know, really. He has plenty of charisma for me to stay interested, but his performance never got under my skin, nor did the whole 'story'.The big texts on the screen weren't helping either, they didn't add anything to what was plainly there already. The music - fierce gospels with rhythmic percussion - is in itself beautiful, but maybe used a little too much.'Small town...' is a somewhat contemplative film on violence, change and forgiveness and their place in society and man, but it never becomes a truly gripping tale.5 out of 10.^ I checked out his career, and it seems I must have seen him earlier in 'Awakenings', but I can't recall his part.

Well, it's happened before where I've been taken in by the promotional blurbs on a film's DVD cover. "A rare film. Cosmologically profound." was the way Variety Magazine put it. "A must-see fresh take on crime and redemption." from the Toronto Star; forgivable I guess because this is a Canadian movie. Then there's "Haunting...Totally Captivating.", which if I had read further to see that it came from the Huffington Post I might have put it down right there.With that kind of a build-up, my expectations were raised for a unique viewing experience. Unfortunately, this film with the cool title is basically your every day murder mystery that could pass in most places as a TV episode, take your pick of series. A plot element that might have had much more of an impact if it had been explored further was the character of police chief Walter (Peter Stormare), who in flash backs is shown beating on an unknown victim, but without that person's identity, there's no ability to connect the dots to the case at hand. All we know is that Walter has rage control problems and he's trying to overcome them, but in the final analysis, I didn't find that to be good enough.Oddly, with the issue I had with the story line, I was strangely fascinated by the bluesy gospel inspired sound track. It would have been better if the music didn't suddenly blare out at you as it did; I had to constantly go for the volume control to bring the level down a few notches. I don't know anything about the Mennonite community or their religion, so I can't say if the music fit the picture's sensibilities or not. But it did seem to reconcile itself with Walter's quest for personal redemption.Now I'm thinking about the ending, and I have to wonder. Was the creepy guy Steve arrested for the murder (all indications pointed to that), or for assailing Walter? You know these two had a bad history between them, but was this a case of the ends justifying the means on Walter's part? Not really clear if you think about it. And the bigger question - how does a looker like Rita get involved with a couple of characters like Walter or Steve in the first place?

How nice to see an adult film made by adults for adults. The music was great and very well done. It is not Fargo but is not trying to be. The feeling of place was outstanding. See this and you have been to a small town in Canada.Peter Stormare carried the day. He found the character and walked into this world as if he belonged. He was that cop. The rest of the cast was also very good.The story is good but not simple. I didn't know how it was going to end. Does he find redemption? Is he the same man? I liked the film, you should watch this film.

Yeah, it's like a Coen film. Mainly because it's horrible. But also because it doesn't even try to make sense or mean anything.The movie begins--and is intermittently littered with--ridiculous, meaningless religious expressions like "GOD FINDS US WHERE WE'RE AT". Enlightening? No. Meaningful? No. Pertinent? No.And the music? It's mixed at an obnoxious volume level, and each and every song is an auditory abomination. Which fits in just fine with the awful script.It's supposedly "artistic" and "sophisticated" to vomit out movies like this. I think it's lazy and pathetic. Leaving gigantic holes in the plot and nearly totally omitting character development doesn't "make you think", it makes you wonder why you're wasting your time on such a vacuous film.