Texas Killing Fields

Being the daughter of a major moviemaker has its advantages. Having attempted solo flight with her low-budget 2001 debut ‘Morning’, it’s taken Ami Canaan Mann ten years – and the presence of dad Michael in the producer’s chair – to get to this sophomore effort. Luckily, she does a bang-up job of directing this intriguing but scattershot ‘based on real events’ police procedural. The place is Texas City, a gritty, blue collar desert town where tough-talking cops Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Sam Worthington are on the trail of a murderer who has been dumping bodies in the nearby swamp. ‘Texas Killing Fields’ is a film of great moments – a nail-biting home invasion, a seedy cameo from Stephen Graham, just about any of the scenes featuring Jessica Chastain’s aggressively no-bullshit detective – which never quite coalesces into a satisfying whole. The plot is bitty and sometimes hard to follow, and the conclusion is rushed and predictable. But as solid Saturday night entertainment goes, this is a consistently compelling, enjoyably old school potboiler.