South of Heaven
RLJEConvicted felons taken out of society, put through the wringer, and given the beatings of their days like the bits exposed in Brawl in Cell Block 99 are bad enough, but it gets worse for them since on the inside, they get so little view of the world around them that the bits that make sense to them and all the parts that they truly cared about are no longer there on the outside. South of Heaven looks into that a little deeper, with a man put away and once out realises the world around him has changed and what few familiarities are there are ebbing out faster than expected, expiring sooner than the sell-by date should’ve promised and checked out before Jimmy (Jason Sudeikis) has a chance to say hello and goodbye.
Audiences saw the opposite of that with Denmark, a man trying to get into the slammer rather than out of it. South of Heaven is a delicate companion piece to that for while the man on the outside has nothing to miss the felon indoors has everything to lose. It’s a contrast explored well by Sudeikis’ leading performance, an emotionally dense one that cements him not just as a man who can play chummy, bumbling football manager but also hardened criminal with an emotional rollercoaster right ahead of him. If anything, South of Heaven will serve as a purposeful reminder that Sudeikis can and will flutter through genres with relative ease, something that has escaped director Aharon Keshales who has yet to hit the ground running with their style and dynamic behind the camera.
Where Keshales needs cover, Sudeikis is there to pick up the slack and offer a tightly-wound and tremendously certain leading role. Conviction like this is reserved for some of the best performances in film, and while Sudeikis is not going to set the world on fire with a script that needs an overhaul, but South of Heaven offers him plenty of riposte to the claims that he is just a man for the comedy genre. Riffing off of the on-screen chemistry with Evangeline Lilly, the leading pair fashioned out a decent narrative of lost love that didn’t die between the two but was blocked off by the walls of a prison and the mistakes of bank robber Jimmy (Sudeikis). It could be said that South of Heaven lays it on a bit thick. It hammers home the bleak future that lingers on the edges, there is no doubt as to where these two are headed.
Even without the benefit of that doubt and of what intrigue it can cause, South of Heaven is a predictably watchable feature that naturally relies on the consequences of the characters and the exciting performances filtered into them. Shea Whigham is a surprise draw that underscores a decent piece of supporting work to the Lilly and Sudeikis’ leading dynamic. All of it should come together better than it does, but the end product is decent enough because it allows for performers not quite acquainted with the genre to gather themselves and provide useful and interesting work.