Atmosphere and mood are excellent. I like the script, but it does take a while to develop. However, this is not an action movie so I wasn't disappointed when I was treated to conversation and dialogue rather than action, as it was never promised to me in the first place..
That being said, I have a theory that I'm surprised I haven't seen from anyone else, including all those sites which claim to explain a movie for you when you want an explanation
So, here's what I believe to be the hidden story...
There is a scene about halfway through the movie that nobody seems to want to talk about. After the power goes out and Stevie is asked to go in the back and turn on the generator, he sees something of great importance, though we the viewer are not privy to what he has seen. In this moment, after he lifts up a tarp that is covering something, Stevie glances over his shoulder nervously as if expecting Paul to be sneaking up on him or something. And the camera does this little move that is done in lots of movies when a major truth is suddenly revealed or a frighteningly significant moment has just taken place...the camera pulled back rapidly to let the severity of the moment sink in...so what did Stevie find?
The answer...Stellie.
My theory is that Paul, the owner of the bar, is a low-level mobster, way down on the totem pole and he was discovered to be a rat by Stellie. (Stellie, i believe, is a slightly bigger mobster than Paul with direct connections to the biggest mobster, Jimmy Thompson) A fight or something ensued and Paul ended up killing Stellie and hiding him in the back of the bar under the tarp until he could figure out what to do with him. And the reason I think this makes sense is one, Stevie wasn't worried about Stellie being at the bar when he walked in out of the cold. Two, after Paul makes a "supposed" phone call to Stellie alerting him that Stevie was back in town, Stevie confidently states that he doesn't believe Paul even talked to Stellie at all. Why would Stevie think that if he didn't already believe that Stellie was dead? Lastly, at the end of the movie, when Paul claims that Stellie should be appearing, Stevie proceeds to slide his father's ashes to the side of his seating area, indicating that he wasn't planning on leaving at all. He had no fear whatsoever of a mobster coming to break his kneecaps or put his cigarettes out in his eyeballs as Paul claimed he might do. Why? Because what he saw under the tarp was Stellie's body. Stevie knew that only Michael, the hired killer, would be showing up.
The rest is pretty easy to figure out...but that tarp incident is extremely significant, I'm surprised nobody else mentioned that scene.
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The answer...Stellie.
My theory is that Paul, the owner of the bar, is a low-level mobster, way down on the totem pole and he was discovered to be a rat by Stellie. (Stellie, i believe, is a slightly bigger mobster than Paul with direct connections to the biggest mobster, Jimmy Thompson) A fight or something ensued and Paul ended up killing Stellie and hiding him in the back of the bar under the tarp until he could figure out what to do with him. And the reason I think this makes sense is one, Stevie wasn't worried about Stellie being at the bar when he walked in out of the cold. Two, after Paul makes a "supposed" phone call to Stellie alerting him that Stevie was back in town, Stevie confidently states that he doesn't believe Paul even talked to Stellie at all. Why would Stevie think that if he didn't already believe that Stellie was dead? Lastly, at the end of the movie, when Paul claims that Stellie should be appearing, Stevie proceeds to slide his father's ashes to the side of his seating area, indicating that he wasn't planning on leaving at all. He had no fear whatsoever of a mobster coming to break his kneecaps or put his cigarettes out in his eyeballs as Paul claimed he might do. Why? Because what he saw under the tarp was Stellie's body. Stevie knew that only Michael, the hired killer, would be showing up.
The rest is pretty easy to figure out...but that tarp incident is extremely significant, I'm surprised nobody else mentioned that scene.
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