[rating: 4/5]
“Tomorrow You’re Gone” is David Jacobson’s film adaptation of Matthew F. Jones’ novel “Boot Tracks.”
The film follows a violent Charlie Rankin (Stephen Dorff) in his pursuit of vengeance for his jail-house mentor, curiously named “the Buddha.”
The Buddha must’ve done something huge, because when he asks Charlie to kill someone for him, Charlie doesn’t hesitate for a second.
But what exactly did the Buddha do for Charlie to owe him something as dangerous as seeking out murder? They never tell us, but I guess we don’t really need to know.
Jacobson skillfully pairs each scene with gripping sound that draws you into the scenes well enough that it makes you feel like you know exactly what’s going on even if you have no idea. The light-hearted Western music partnered with aggressive scenes is reminiscent to Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers,” where the sound and visuals worked oddly well together to ooze out the ultra-violent nature of the film. Charlie beats an old man to death with dead eyes showing no sign of remorse while a playful tune whistled and twanged in the background.
Charlie meets the free-spirited porn star Florence (Michelle Monaghan), who accompanies him along his journey. The chemistry between the rough and removed Charlie and the ethereal Florence is absolutely stellar and is enough to steer you along the storyline even though you’re not exactly sure what’s going on. In fact, I was more interested in their blossoming relationship than I was with whether or not Charlie would actually kill whoever he’s supposed to kill.
Because who was he supposed to kill? And what was up with that dead ram in the road? Who was that woman that kept appearing in his rearview mirror? Are we inside Charlie’s head at some point or is everything really happening?
The questions keep coming as the film continues, but thankfully for Jacobson, the questions don’t necessarily take away anything from the film and instead provoke intrigue. When Florence puts on a wig and Charlie sees someone else in her face, and when Charlie sees a man scurrying in the woods, Jacobson is almost forcing us to get our brains working to draw the connections ourselves. Each scene makes you think that everything is significant, and even if you don’t really know why, you’re still there — watching and itching to see what will happen next.
I walked out of “Tomorrow You’re Gone” with a lot of questions, but I am definitely going to pick up a copy of “Boot Tracks” to find the answers.
