It seems like most of the exciting films that are being made today are created without the help of a studio.  Since the big players want a guaranteed hit for the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars that they are putting up, they tend to go with safe (read: dull) projects: action films, remakes of old TV shows, and sequels.  To watch a film that is new and original you have to go either to the output of a foreign country or with an independent film, and I find myself enjoying those types of films more often than not.  One recent independent film that I was able to see was Love Comes to the Executioner, a unique and quirky dark comedy.  It has some amusing dialog and a few scenes that worked nicely, but wasn't quite able to create as many laughs as the premise would indicate.

Heck Prigusivac (Jonathan Tucker) has just graduated from college with a degree I classical languages.  All he wants to do is get a job teaching Latin in a high school, but he has trouble finding a job.  The fact that his father was a killer, his mother a porn star, and his brother Chick (Jeremy Renner) is currently on death row for murdering all of Heck's high school Latin club (well, Heck did borrow his car without asking) makes him an applicant that most employers shy away from.

The only place he can get a job is with the federal penitentiary.  He's hoping to teach the inmates Latin, but instead he's offered the job of 'closer'.  Initially thinking that means locking up the prison at night, Heck's a little surprised to find out that he's going to be the executioner.  With his brother sitting on death row, it would be the perfect way of getting him back for slaughtering his Latin Club friends so he accepts.

Heck takes to his job like a duck to water, humming "Walking on Sunshine" by Katirna and the Waves while he administers the leathal injections to the condemned.  The only thing he doesn't count on is falling in love with the only female prisoner in the facility, Dori (Ginnifer Goodwin), who's also on death row.  Things get a little complicated when Chick finds out about the prison romance since Dori was his girl in high school.

This is billed as a dark comedy, but it's more like dark comedy-lite.  The film isn't that dark, and the humor only works to a certain extent.  The movie does have some good dialog that's witty and some amusing scenes, it has trouble bringing it all together.  There are no big laugh-out-loud moments in the film, instead the creators tried to make up for that by liberally sprinkling small jokes throughout the movie.  A good example is the conversation between Heck and a janitor friend of his when he realizes that he's in love:
 
Heck:  I'm gonna ask her to marry me.

Janitor: But don't ya gotta kill her?

Heck:  Well, no relationship is perfect.

That's the comic tone of the film, amusing but not out and out funny.

The other main complaint I had was that the ending didn't work well at all.  I could see the desire to wrap the film up nicely and have a happy ending, but it was a bit too contrived even for a comedy.

The film was written and directed by Kyle Bergersen, and this is his second feature film.  The direction is solid for the most part, but sometime Bergersen tries a bit too hard to get a 'great looking scene' and ends up blowing it.  When Heck and Dori are talking on a gurney in the execution room, the camera slowly circles them again, and again, and again.  They did it so many times I started to get dizzy.  The scene in the warden's office where Heck was distracted by the malfunctioning table fan was also a bit irritating.  The multiple quick cuts between the fan and the warden were a bit irritating rather then funny.
 

That's not to say that the film was without merit, it wasn't.  This is an amusing film that is worth viewing.  It just doesn't quite live up to its potential however.

This disc comes with stereo and DD 5.1 audio tracks.  I screened the film with the surround sound track, and it sounded good though there wasn't much use of the rears or subwoofer.  It was pretty much a stereo mix with the occasional music track thrown to the rears.  The sound reproduction was good, a little thin in a couple of parts but overall it sounded nice.  There weren't any audio defects worth noting.  Optional subtitles are available in Spanish only.

Video:
 
The anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) image was pretty good for a small independent film.  The colors were strong but not overly bright though flesh tones were sometimes a little on the red side.  The contrast was a tad uneven with some colors disappearing when they moved into shadows.  A good example of this was Dori's shirt near the end of the film.  When it was is sunlight it was a light brown but when she moved into shadows it turned black.  The black levels were a little light but not terribly so, and there was a bit of digital noise.  Otherwise a nice solid transfer.
 
Extras:

This disc also comes with a short reel of outtakes, and a cast interview.  This latter bonus item was made like an HBO making of featurette, where the actors talk about their characters and liberal clips from the film and interspersed.  I didn't find it too interesting.

Final Thoughts:

While this film had some amusing lines, there weren't any really great laughs.  The tone was a bit too subdued and quiet, and it never really got moving.  The ending also had some problems but they weren't so bad as to ruin the film.  It was a different film, and not something that you'll see showing at the local mega-plex, and that's a good thing.  This would make an very good rental for people who are looking for something a but different and off the beaten path.