You'd be forgiven for thinking that the town of Suspicious River lay a few miles downstream from Twin Peaks. Same rolling hills and remote air, same home-grown folks with troubles beneath the surface. Here it's motel receptionist Leila (Molly Parker), spicing up a strained marriage by whoring herself to customers, who's likely to become the next Laura Palmer.
Parker and writer-director Lynne Stopkewich previously collaborated on Kissed, a dark but surprisingly unexploitative take on necrophilia. In other hands Suspicious River could be a porno plot, but Stopkewich refuses to dwell on nudity or use scenes of rape and abuse for titillation.
Unfortunately, Suspicious River has none of the vitality or originality of its predecessor. Its lack of explicitness, while laudable in theory, seems symptomatic of how the movie as a whole fails to challenge the audience on any significant level.
