From the title, this sounds like an episode in a British mystery show, or maybe an old Hardy Boys adventure.

In fact, it’s a rather weird thriller set on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. At the film’s beginning, Abby, a thirty-something woman, returns to her hometown to protest the sale of her recently deceased mother’s motel. Via a few plot machinations, she gets caught up in the mystery of the murder of a young boy decades earlier. In fact, when she was a child, she may have seen this boy just before his murder. Or so we presume, if Abby can be trusted.

She can’t, it turns out. Our poor gal has a predilection, even compulsion, for lying. As the movie plays out, some of her deceptions are revealed.

But, and I don’t think I’m giving anything away, there are other, malicious forces at work. The irony is that the one person tasked with finding the truth has such a tortured relationship with it. 

This is one of those movies where the setting is a star. We have plenty of shots of the falls themselves, contrasted against the town itself, which to my eye looked like an empty Atlantic City. (The story takes place in the off season.)

Niagara Falls come across as the Twin peaks of the northeast. It fact, the whole film has a David Lynch vibe, the way it settles into unease. There were shades of Mulholland Drive and Wild at Heart, both neo-noir bizzaro thrillers that offer more questions than answers.

The soundtrack really struck me. It’s that kind of modern jazz that seems designed to induce anxiety. (Well, in normal people; I love that stuff.) The music further augmented the Lynchian vibe.

The ending is both satisfying and puzzling.