By Robert Scucci
| Published 16 seconds ago

Around the time Charlize Theron was transitioning out of one massive studio project (a little film called Mad Max: Fury Road) and into something far smaller and more restrained, she took on the 2015 crime thriller Dark Places. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name and fully committed to its mystery, Dark Places was mostly forgotten upon release, earning just over $5 million at the box office against its reported $11.9 million production budget. Even worse, the film took a beating on the critical front, landing at 23 percent with critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a not much better 33 percent approval rating on the Popcornmeter.

While I don’t necessarily agree with that harsh of an assessment, Dark Places is a difficult watch because it tries to do too much at once. It’s one of those cases where the timelines it explores are better suited for the page than the screen. What’s meant to be a present-day mystery informed by grisly events from decades earlier becomes a narrative tangle, which is frustrating because the screenplay itself is solid, the acting is even better, and the individual components mostly work. The problem is how those components collide.

Defined By Trauma, Motivated By Money

Dark Places’ present-day mystery centers on Libby Day (Charlize Theron), the sole survivor of a family massacre that occurred when she was just 8 years old, portrayed in flashbacks by Sterling Jerins. Her older brother Ben (Corey Stoll) was charged with the crime and is currently serving a life sentence. Ben insists that Libby never knew the whole story, and that when he was a teenager, portrayed by Tye Sheridan, there were other suspects who were never properly considered.

In the present day, Libby survives on donations tied to her notoriety as the girl whose family was murdered. As the years pass and public interest fades, that money dries up, creating financial pressure that not even her ghostwritten book is able to relieve. When Libby is approached by Lyle Wirth (Nicholas Hoult) and invited to speak at his true crime club, she agrees on the condition that she’s paid. Defined by her trauma and motivated by survival, Libby sees it as a necessary move to keep the lights on. That calculation changes quickly once she realizes what Lyle is actually after.

While Lyle does run a true crime club, it operates on two very different levels. The bottom floor caters to casual hobbyists, while the upper floor is filled with people who dedicate their free time to actively solving cold cases. Lyle believes Ben may be innocent, but Libby’s childhood testimony was compelling enough to secure a conviction. As far as Libby remembers, she told the truth. Still, she’s forced to confront the idea that memories formed under extreme trauma may not be as reliable as she once believed.

Initially showing up purely for the money, Libby agrees to visit her brother in prison to hear his version of events. That conversation sends her along a breadcrumb trail of half-buried truths, pushing her closer to the possibility that someone else murdered her family while Ben took the fall.

Two-Story Structure Kills The Momentum

On paper, Dark Places has a compelling setup. An estranged brother and sister work toward the same goal years after they’re separated, each carrying their own version of the truth. The tension is baked in, since Libby’s testimony put Ben behind bars, even though she was just a child and every piece of evidence at the time pointed directly at him. Ben has either accepted his fate or is playing a long game that even Lyle and his crew of amateur sleuths can’t fully see through.

Alternating with the present-day story is a second narrative set in 1985, leading up to the night of the murders. These scenes are drip-fed with the intention of eventually colliding with the present-day revelations. It’s a strong idea conceptually, but one that becomes unwieldy in execution. The audience can slowly piece things together as the film goes, but by the time Dark Places reaches its midpoint, most of the major cards are already on the table if you’re familiar with the genre.

Dark Places leans heavily into well-worn tropes, and to its credit, it executes them competently. The downside of that level of reliability is a story structure that follows a painfully familiar logic, which softens the impact of the mystery. The dual narrative is meant to heighten the tension, but instead it undercuts its own reveal. While I wouldn’t argue that Dark Places deserves its current critical score, it’s easy to understand why it left so many viewers feeling underwhelmed. All the pieces for a compelling thriller are present, they just never lock together in a way that feels satisfying.

For its performances and its core concept alone, Dark Places is worth a watch. But if you’re hoping for a mystery that really gets its hooks into you, this probably isn’t the one that will do it.

Dark Places is streaming on Netflix.