We’re introduced to Leigh (Bethany Anne Lind) in her dank auto shop, gazing, panic-stricken, at the body of a man and his spreading pool of blood. The murder, she will later claim, was in self-defense; but, instead of burning, burying or drowning the corpse — an oversight her estranged father (Will Patton), the town sheriff, will furiously berate her for — Leigh wraps it neatly in plastic sheeting and drives it to the man’s home.
“He’s in the shed,” reads the note she leaves in the mailbox for his son and girlfriend. “I’m sorry.”
Such is the setup for “Blood on Her Name,” a greasy thriller from Matthew Pope that, notwithstanding Lind’s impressive, high-anxiety performance, plays like a checklist entitled “How Not to Get Away With Murder.” Everything Leigh does is stupid, from her carelessness with fingerprints and jewelry, to her inability to keep her mouth or her facial expressions under control. Her teenage son (Jared Ivers) is on parole, his father is in jail, and Leigh has a habit of popping pills and alienating those — like her concerned mechanic (Jimmy Gonzales) — who want to help.
Oppressively dark and unrelentingly intense, “Blood on Her Name” packs down-and-dirty performances, and a few surprises, into a tight 85 minutes. Almost everyone here is morally compromised, if not completely lawless, and the movie creates a world where poverty and violence are genetic inheritances. Pope and his co-writer, Don M. Thompson, are most interested in what happens when conscience gets the better of common sense, and human decency asserts itself over the will to survive. In that sense, Leigh’s incompetence isn’t a burden: It’s a kind of hope.
Blood on Her Name
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
