“Cold Brook” is a ghost story but it’s not scary. Directed and co-written by character actor William Fichtner “Black Hawk Down”, “Armageddon”, who also stars, the film’s story is of two maintenance workers who meet a man haunted by his past.
Ted (Fichtner) works alongside his best friend Hilde (Kim Coates) as maintenance workers at a tiny liberal arts college. Both are married men. Ted’s wife is Mary Ann (Robin Weigert) and Hilde’s wife is Rachel (Mary Lynn Rajskub). Life for these two men, in this small town, is simple and predictable.
Then the men’s lives get shaken up one night while they’re closing up the school’s museum, currently hosting an exhibition devoted to The Bernadine, a ship that sank in 1857.
They notice a mysterious man staring at a display case; naturally, they think he’s an intruder and chase him out of the building. Their quarry disappears, but Ted and Hilde, who were captured on camera by some students, become local heroes.
Inside the museum the two experience strange lights bathing the museum’s exterior and repeated sightings of the man they thought they had chased away. They learn his name is Gil Le Deux (Harold Perrineau) and he is a ghost. His wife died in the shipwreck and he can’t rest until he’s reunited with her. How? Great question, it has something to do with a deed to land that he was owed that’s being shown in the exhibition.
Ted and Hilde try to help Gil acquire the document but they become suspects and are hunted down by an overzealous security guard (Brad William Henke).
The best thing about “Cold Brook” is Perrineau’s performance. The small-time feeling of rural life and the camaraderie between the two middle-age men is nice enough and there is chemistry for sure but the film only sparkles because of Perrineau.
“Cold Brook” makes an effort but in the end, it leaves you feeling very cold.
“Cold Brook” now on VOD. Starring William Fichtner, Kim Coates, Harold Perrineau, Robin Weigert, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Johnny Strong, Brad William Henke. Directed by William Fichtner. Written by William Ficthtner and Cain DeVore.
102 minutes