People from the Midwest often get the short end of the character depth stick in Hollywood. They are usually portrayed as either wide-eyed, new-to-the-big-city simple folk, or back-woods inbred hicks. “Killer Diller,” not having been made in California, gives the people of middle Missouri a chance to distinguish themselves as actual human beings. Despite the fact that it is in no way a great film, it has a big heart that’s not too drippy.
William Lee Scott plays Wesley, a young man who’s been in more trouble than there are catfish in the Mississippi. He’s released to a halfway house in mid-Missouri that specializes in rehabilitating troubled youths through Christian music. Wesley, whose only positive experience in life was learning to play the blues guitar from an old musician (guitar legend Taj Mahal), is in his own private hell. That is, until he meets Vernon (“Sling Blade”‘s Lucas Black) a mentally troubled autistic kid who drives an imaginary car and plays rollicking blues piano. Wesley recruits Vernon to start a real band with the other residents of the halfway house, but Ned (Fred Willard), who runs the house, stands in their way.
This is a simple movie with several nice performances from the main characters, especially Black, who is given a role that could have easily become an overdone caricature. Particularly effective as well is W. Earl Brown as Vernon’s overprotective father who portrays the character as a redneck, but one with reasonable fears of the outside world who legitimately wants the best for his son. The director, Tricia Brock, does a good job of telling the story and fleshing out the characters, keeping the film, which has a minimum of story, moving briskly.
The success of the movie hinges mostly on the scenes and the music, and Brock does a great job with both, bringing in Keb Mo as a consultant. Without these scenes, the movie would start to blend in with the background, but by paying particular attention to them, and by having good musicians play good music, the movie gets your feet tapping.
This is not an award-worthy picture, nor does it claim to be, but it is a good movie with its heart in the right place. At times the movie just doesn’t feel quite cinematic enough to rate much attention. It has a simple plot that has been done before and doesn’t have any tricks up its sleeve. What this film lacks is true focus on the characters, who seem to be filling up space as opposed to showing us anything about who they are. But because this was a movie made completely outside of Hollywood with almost no budget, it deserves a chance. Once given, it delivers quite well, even if it doesn’t have the audience dancing in the aisles.