Dust Bunny

Directed by Bryan Fuller, Dust Bunny follows a little girl (Sophie Sloan’s Aurora) as she hires an assassin (Mads Mikkelsen) to kill the monster under her bed. Filmmaker Fuller, armed with his own screenplay, delivers an incredibly (and excessively) broad endeavor that strikes all the wrong notes virtually from the word go, as the movie, which is rarely (if ever) as charming and whimsical as Fuller has surely intended, has been hard-wired with a heavily stylized feel that persistently (and frustratingly) holds the viewer at arms length – with the hopelessly uninvolving atmosphere compounded by a recurring emphasis on grating attributes (eg long, interminable dialogue-free stretches). And while Fuller admittedly deserves some credit for going full balls-to-the-wall crazy with this debut endeavor (ie the movie is, for better or worse, certainly a unique and creative piece of work), Dust Bunny’s few agreeable elements, including an entertainingly over-the-top turn by Sigourney Weaver, are rendered moot by its aggressively off-kilter sensibilities.

*1/2 out of ****