The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman

Released in the States in late 2013 under a slightly different title, it would appear that the gap in releasing it over here would help waft away the stink of the negative reviews it received over there, as well as hot-stepping it into the good-will afforded to Shia LaBeouf following his decent performance and press tour surrounding recent box office hit, Fury. Plus, since this film is set in Europe, us Europeans would be more likely to accept it’s foibles and recognise it for the art-house gem it truly is. Afraid not Charlie, because your film is still a dud.

Already depressed before the death of his mother (Melissa Leo), Charlie (LaBeouf) is then promptly visited by her ghost, who tells him to go to Bucharest. So off he goes, and on the flight over the baseball-loving Romanian guy in the seat next to him tells him about the hat he’s bringing back to his daughter, and then he dies mid-flight. Once off the flight, he runs into the guy’s daughter (Wood), and pretty much immediately falls in love with her. But she’s got a particularly nasty ex-husband (Mikklesen), who also happens to be pretty high up the crime ladder in Bucharest.

From there it’s just one long, meandering mess of a scene melting pointlessly into the next one, none of it making much sense or even getting close to having a point. The whole “finding yourself abroad” thing has been done to death, and much better than here, while the romance elements don’t work because we never once believe that LaBeouf and Wood actually work as a couple. Initial attraction, yes, maybe, but life-on-the-line infatuation? Not so much.

A first time director who is quite obviously trying to make a name for himself as a visualist – the eye-scorching lighting set-ups and over eager editing become exhausting about 20 minutes in – and a screenplay from the writer of the horrendous Project X, the only thing that saves this film from being a total disaster is the cast. It’s clear from his performance that Shia LaBeouf loves Charlie Countryman, so it’s too bad nobody else will.