The film was hurt by not clearly establishing where it was meant to be set. Since half the cast were American, I assume it was meant to be the US, but the rainy, out-of-season seaside resort with dodgy fairground rides seems much more reminiscent of Britain. The remainder of the cast sport a weird array of accents - Jim Carter attempts to sound American but not very convincingly, Jordan Frieda sounds like a British public schoolboy and I couldn't quite work out whether David Murray's Simeon was meant to be Irish or some other nationality.

The lack of a clearly defined setting meant it was harder to believe in the characters. They had no grounding or context. The film was intended to be a kind of Greek tragedy but I found it unconvincing and relying too much on coincidence. Plus points were Dennis Hopper (who is always superb) and David Murray, who exuded a powerful and menacing presence as the chief evil-doer.

It is out of season and the temporary employee Pierre (Jordan Frieda) of an amusement park seaside has all his savings stolen by the crook Simeon Guant (David Murray), a friend of his girlfriend Kelly Phillips (Dominique Swain). Kelly is daughter of the owner of the park, Michael Philipps (Jim Carter), who is married with Eileen Phillips (Gina Gershon). Eileen cheats her husband with Simeon, and they plot to kill Michael simulating a burglary and get his life insurance. Pierre, without any money, associates to the owner of a bar, the former thief Harry Barlow (Dennis Hopper), who teaches him how to burglar. The reunion of these six characters has no happy ending.

"Out of Season" is an unsuccessful attempt of neo-noir movie. The amoral characters are all losers, cheating, betraying, blackmailing, stealing, corrupting etc. and it is impossible to feel sympathy for any character of this dark and unpleasant story. Gina Gershon plays the fatal woman and is very sexy as usual. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Temporada de Crime" ("Season of Crime")

"Out of Season" is not an unambitious or uninteresting movie. It tries to present six different characters, and two parallel plot lines that eventually cross each other's paths. But this is another one of those movies where the director tries to impose his "style" (tilted camera angles, slow-motion, strange close-ups, etc.) on almost every shot - this is obtrusive and distracting. And he really overreaches when he tries to turn this story of human greed into some kind of "religious" tragedy. Ultimately, it's an unpleasant and (in Dennis Hopper's case) degrading film. Most of the actors do what they have to do to collect their paycheck, nothing more. The standout is David Murray, who plays a convincingly hateful scumbag. Dominique Swain has one or two sexy moments (no nudity though). (**)