Chattahoochee

Based on true events, Chattahoochee follows Korean War veteran Emmett Foley (Gary Oldman) as he’s incarcerated in a mental-health prison in which prisoners are abused and left completely untreated. It’s a familiar premise that’s employed to sporadically intriguing yet mostly tedious effect by Mick Jackson, as the filmmaker, working from James Cresson’s screenplay, delivers a sluggish and frustratingly momentum-free drama that’s generally unable to wholeheartedly capture and sustain the viewer’s attention – with the repetitive, episodic midsection doing little to alleviate the predominantly uninvolving vibe. The movie’s failure is especially disappointing given that it’s been infused with a whole host of admittedly above-average elements, with, especially, the often jaw-droppingly impressive set-design and uniformly commanding performances going a long way towards periodically buoying one’s dwindling interest. (Oldman’s stirring and completely convincing work here remains an obvious highlight, to be sure.) And although the picture does improve slightly in a second half focused on Emmett’s attempts to effect change within the aforementioned prison, Chattahoochee‘s pervasively unpleasant atmosphere cements its place as a well-intentioned misfire that’s rarely, if ever, as enthralling as Jackson has obviously intended.

** out of ****