We’ve kinda reached the point where movie studios are only throwing money at big budget movies that stories like “DTF St. Louis” are being released as limited series.
But what should’ve been a two-hour family drama movie in the vein of “Rashomon” is a shaggy dog story that is stretched over seven episodes that are well over six hours cumulative.
It’s supposedly inspired by a true story but a lot of the factors have been changed. Jason Bateman plays Clark Forrest, a TV weatherman in the St. Louis area, who begins an affair with Carol Love-Smernitch (Linda Cardinelli) who is the wife of his friend/colleague Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour). Floyd is found dead half-naked at a community pool locker room. Law enforcement investigators Donoghue Homer (Richard Jenkins) and Jodie Plumb (Joy Sunday) have different theories but soon learn more as they begin to interview Clark and Carol.
Bateman downplays the role from his usual shtick and Harbour is a totally different performance than what people are used to from “Stranger Things.” Despite his height and size, Floyd is very sheepish and non-confrontational. He’s having a difficult time getting through to his introverted stepson, Richard (Arian Ruf). He’s overweight which has caused sexual friction with Carol who still loves him. And Floyd blew off a better job interview to learn American Sign Language which he gets a job signing for Clark’s weather reports.
Yet Clark’s personal life has become humdrum and routine. His wife and kids feature so little in the series I’m not even going to list them. But when he first meets Carol, he immediately becomes smitten with her.
Unfortunately, anyone going into a show like this knows there’s going to be a lot of red herrings and twists that aren’t really twists. The actors give great performances especially Cardinelli who shows some skin that many people will want to see since her role as Velma in “Scooby-Doo.”
But the story meanders over and over that I feel some people will lose interest very early and not care about finishing. Not all stories like this have to be major “Whodunits.” Yet if you’re going to present a story like this in a non-linear fashion, you better have a bigger payoff. You can basically summarize the entire shown into three or four sentences.
That’s not good.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 