TL;DR – It just felt like there was a big struggle to take this short story and adapt it to the big screen. The cast and location help, but they can only go so far.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Delia’s Gone Review –

Today, we are looking at a film that is full of potential, but it doesn’t quite come together. Which I do feel bad about saying this because you can feel everyone trying to grab onto something here, but it just doesn’t quite work.

So to set the scene, Louis (Stephan James) lives with a brain trauma that presents as someone living on the autistic spectrum. He lives with his sister Delia (Genelle Williams) and has a set routine in his life, including going to bed at 9:30. One day, after getting black-out drunk after some bad news, he wakes to find the room trashed, Delia dead in his house, and blood on his hands. He had hurt Delia the day before and assumed that the drink had made him violent and pled guilty to manslaughter at trial. Seven years later, while living in a home, Louis gets a visit from his hometown, a man named Stacker Cole (Travis Fimmel), who might have been the last one to see Delia at The Roadhouse and lets him know what happened to Delia might not have been his fault.  

As a mystery, I think they did a good job of not tipping their hand too early as to whether Louis did or did not harm his sister. In fact, right up until Fran (Marisa Tomei) arrives back on the scene, she becomes very concerned about what her brother Stacker said, and then it becomes very apparent what happened. I am not sure about Stephan James’ performance. While he was not depicting Autism, it was representing someone who presents as one, and it just feels inconsistent. This is amplified by stodgy writing and sequences that felt like they were there just to pad out the run time.

The production design of the film was probably its highlight. It makes the most of its rural Canadian location to help make the most of the narrative. Indeed, I think the musical score is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I do like some oboe, and we get a lot of it here. While it was great to see Marisa Tomei, Paul Walter Hauser & Travis Fimmel in this, and you can feel them trying, they just aren’t given the dialogue to do much with. It’s all exposition or nonsense with nothing in between. Though points for Marisa Tomei’s odd ‘I just threatened to shoot you’ dance.

In the end, do we recommend Delia’s Gone? Overall, it just felt like there was a big struggle to take this short story and adapt it to the big screen. The cast and location help, but they can only go so far. If you liked Delia’s Gone, we would recommend to you Bring Him to Me.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Delia’s Gone
Directed by – Robert Budreau
Screenplay by – Robert Budreau
Based on – Caged Bird Sing by Michael Hamblin
Music by – David Braid
Cinematography by – Steve Cosens
Edited by – Geoff Ashenhurst
Production/Distribution Companies – Vertical Entertainment, Productivity Media, Telefilm Canada, Jobro Productions, Lumanity Productions, Entertainment One & Eagle Entertainment  
Starring – Stephan James, Marisa Tomei, Paul Walter Hauser, Travis Fimmel & Genelle Williams with Kate Moyer, Michelle Giroux, Hamza Haq, Graham Abbey & Billy MacLellan  
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 12; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: na; United States: R