Is this the new version of a Jack In The Box?
The Big Empty (2003) is a movie about the collision of worlds. Or universes. Or thought paradigms.
John Person is a failing actor, trying for parts and failing, until one night he’s offered the chance to succeed as a courier: take the blue suitcase to a little town up near a dried up lake bed. On arrival, he discovers his contact, Cowboy, was at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, and then left. The hotel night manager is a bit of a nut job. The bartender is aching to get out of town; her daughter is a maybe-nympho with a passing acquaintance with honesty and a murderous ex-boyfriend. Or is he?
And just what about Cowboy? Is he FBI? Or is the alleged FBI agent really an FBI agent? He seems … unreliable. How many days are we in the little town, trying to talk about masturbatory practices? I don’t want to know.
And then comes the big wrapup, twelve suitcases, twelve people, and a minibus, flashing lights and … well … where did everyone go? Who knows? Maybe not even the director.
My theory is that a universe separate from ours is brushing briefly against ours, and the inhabitants of the other universe are using our resources for their own purposes. All very mysterious. But you can make up your own.
Mind.
This sort of story is unsatisfying, as it’s not empathetic. We can’t put ourselves in the places of the characters and measure our reactions against there’s, because we don’t really gain an understanding of situation. It’s interesting, suggestive of realities in which we may be moral agents, but lack the knowledge that such agents require.
Be warned. And the special effect of the dry lake bed? My Arts Editor pronounced it a pebble ceiling, which made the body lying on it a bug stuck to the ceiling.
Perhaps not so good. Or perhaps very good.
Sprinkled with humor, horror, and mystery. Enjoy.
