"Cold in July" starts with a major warning sign. Or make it many. The first is a wakeup call. Not the traditional one in which a phone rings or an alarm clock sounds. Instead, a wife warns her husband of a disturbance. He gets up, takes out his gun and walks into his living room where he finds a burglar. A tense moment ensues that is almost a standstill. The man points the gun at the trespasser and as a clock chimes, he pulls the trigger and fires. And then comes the biggest warning sign of all. As he glimpses at the scene, the man notices something all over his wall. The blood of his victim. The image is gruesome and gory. From this opening sequence, the viewer gets a sense that this film could be gritty and horrifying. But the blood plastered all over the walls is actually indicative of something very different. It actually tells the viewer that this film is going to be over-the-top.

And that is the warning sign that the unknowing viewer will likely miss. And regret missing. Because for all of its seeming good intentions, "Cold in July" is really the tale of two movies packed into one.

After the aforementioned opening scene, Richard Dane (Michael C. Hall) is seemingly traumatized by having killed another person. And why shouldn't he be. He is a standup citizen who owns a picture frame business, is well respected and has a beautiful family. But his own sense of guilt unsettles him tremendously, and things only get worse when he finds out that the father (Sam Shepard) of his victim has been released on parole and wants revenge.

So begins the first movie packed into "Cold in July." In this film, Richard must do everything in his power to protect his family from the villainous Russell. The tension builds into a fascinating sequence in which Russell prepares to kidnap Richard's son. But then he gets captured, and the plot takes a formidable twist that leaves the viewer perplexed and wanting more. The good guys are not who they appear to be, and Richard takes it upon himself to unravel this yarn of mysteries.

But then the second movie takes over in the form of Don Johnson's Jim Bob. The moment his extravagant red car (with the license plate reading Red Btch) rides up to Richard's shop blasting country music, it is clear that there is something a bit off about this new character. And sure enough, Jim Bob feels like he belongs to a cartoon than a suspense thriller. Johnson makes him charming and comic, but Jim Bob never quite fits into the tapestry that came before it.

The remainder of the film is a mishmash of 80s action clichés with the electronic pulsating tunes and even some slow-motion images of the Jim Bob, Russell and Richard preparing for a big battle. The plot goes from Richard's attempt to come to terms with his original sin to being Russell's search for his son and then awkwardly transforms into a revenge saga with no discernible motivation. In the midst of all this chaotic screenwriting, a number of characters go from being major players to disappearing altogether. The biggest disappointment is that Richard's family becomes a nonentity. Richard starts off trying to be everything for his family, and by the end, it seems that there is no interest in tapping into how his psychological shift is affecting that original Edenic existence. The ending leaves one of the most woeful loose ends in regards to Richard's family as a number of important factors are completely disregarded in service of setting up the climactic showdown.

Speaking of which, the ending of the film is filled with shoot-em-up style chaos that manages to splatter blood all over the screen. And Richard, who was traumatized by killing a man early in the film, seems completely okay with his second murder. The confrontation between Russell and his ultimate adversary is equally vapid in its execution. The viewer is left wondering why there was a build to such a seemingly pointless moment.  

Hall and Shepard do a decent job creating what amounts to one-dimensional ciphers. Both characters seemed to have complexity in the early parts of the film but slowly degenerate into walking plot devices with barely any personality or direction.

The promise of "Cold in July's" opening act creates the notion that the viewer will be in for a relentless thrill ride. But unfortunately, the opening act turns out to be nothing more than a red herring for the rest of the film, which unfortunately amounts to nothing more than violent chaos with no seeming direction or identity. It is literally the gratuitous image of blood splattered all over the place.