Review: ‘Blue Ridge’ is a Murder Mystery Movie with Unmistakable Mountain Appeal

Set in a small town confined amidst the breathtaking Appalachians, “Blue Ridge” is a murder mystery movie with unmistakable mountain appeal. It’s a two-pronged plot; with the local sheriff investigating a murder all the while balancing an attempted reconciliation with his wife and daughter.

Justin Wise is a former Green Beret, and the new sheriff of Blue Ridge. Wise is played by Johnathan Schaech, who does a great job in the primary role. As a Green Beret, we get several action sequences demonstrating Wise isn’t a man to be messed with, physically or mentally. Sheriff Wise is an outsider, and as such not trusted by the locals. We’ve seen this element in stories before (“Jaws” comes quickly to mind) though here there’s a deeper backstory to the character.

The look and sound of the film is clean, and it sells the landscape of the mountains quite well. The setting is a plausible locale, and we get a taste of life in rural North Carolina with various pearls of wisdom dropped by the bounty of colorful characters, from comparisons of how BBQ sauce should taste, to the prevalence of gunshots, said by one man to be “like copperheads” because they are everywhere.

The supporting cast does a good job of completing the townsfolk. I’ve been a big fan of Sarah Lancaster since her “Chuck” days, and here she does a masterful job as Sheriff Wise’s ex-wife, Elli. Lancaster has a commanding presence on the screen, from simple aesthetics to high quality acting. It’s unfortunate that she’s not given a whole lot to work with here, but manages to be strong in all of her scenes nonetheless.

The lawmen are filled out with deputies played by Lara Silva and Ben Esler, the latter of which offers some hysterical comedic moments. The mayor of Blue Ridge is a woman of color (Odessa Feaster) which seems a bit contrived but nonetheless a welcomed bit of diversity.

There’s also a long standing family feud between two neighboring factions, the Wade’s and the McGrath’s, that’s threatening to boil over. The families, looking for any excuse to wage war, are each led by gruff looking mountain types, and stacked with more soldiers than the Gambino’s. Sheriff Wise is working against a ticking clock. He must solve the murder before “mountain justice” takes over.

My criticism comes from the overall production, which for some reason felt less like a movie than the pilot for a television series. The plot is a simple murder whodunit, with a character getting killed off in the first handful of minutes, and the cops going around trying to solve the crime, interviewing multiple suspects and obvious red herrings along the way.

There’s a new sheriff in a small town that the locals don’t trust. There are two feuding families. We have cartoonish deputies and a beautiful ex-wife that needs to be wooed all over again. There’s a teenage daughter who’s addicted to her phone, and a crime every week that needs to be solved, in a place said to be great for raising a family. It’s the type of thing my mother would watch every Friday night at 9pm, 8 central. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I myself left wanting to know more about the characters and what would happen next. As a series I would want to keep watching. As a movie that comes to an end with the credits, it’s a bit uninspiring.

“Blue Ridge” is an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes. There’s nothing overly memorable in the art of film making, but a solid story is presented along the journey. This could and should be a Netflix series.