This is a project that could have easily looked terrible and shoddy if the wrong director took it on, and it’s a good thing Patrick Roddy has his shit together, because “Red 71” is a damn fine production. Everything from set pieces to moods are top notch and the man sucks me into his world providing a murky and deep grit that makes this one of the more interesting neo-noir attempts in the indie world. “Red 71” also takes an unlikely hero and makes him the centerpiece in an unraveling crime thriller that really reminded me of “Murder on the Orient Express.” While the concept is pretty old hat noir, I liked what Roddy had in mind for his main hero while cutting all clichés about chiseled noir detectives. Most of the sequences Roddy puts together including a pig masked killer, are just fascinating, and Roddy injects some of the same appeal from “Mercy,” and implements it for this.

I wish I could recommend “Red 71” to you as I would recommend Roddy’s “Mercy,” but sadly I really can’t. Because the film is really aimed at a particular subset of movie lovers who are more inclined to enjoy films from Lynch or surreal neo-noir. “Red 71” is all of this and sadly not as good as it has the potential to be. Though not shoddily made in the least, I simply couldn’t really get into “Red 71” for various reasons; the first and primary flaw being the lagging pacing that really does aspire to be a slow boil crime mystery and really just is lethargic. Roddy really does almost reach the noir atmosphere and doesn’t quite get to that point in the film. The pacing is sluggish, and sometimes even when there’s a tense sequence, I found no excitement or enjoyment from what was occurring. Secondly, “Red 71” would have worked as a shorter film, and with a shorter format the pacing would have excelled.

Nathan Ginn in particular looks bored, and when he’s given a monologue or a chance to shine, he looks like he’s reading from cue cards behind the camera. I was never sure what Roddy was aiming for when it came to the plot and overall motif, because he steps on all sorts of devices from Lynch with nods to “Blue Velvet,” to dime novels, to pulp fiction genre, to PI murder mysteries and the whole kit and caboodle unable to stop and focus on the narrative. For a movie that’s a little under an hour there’s a lot to be said about the story when I found it to be too long and overwrought. “Red 71” is not made by some amateur, but the story never reaches the heights Roddy is capable of, especially when I knew he gave us the great thriller “Mercy.”

Roddy once again creates a film of great production value and visuals and knows how to direct a film damn well, it’s just too bad I didn’t enjoy this as much as “Mercy.” Roddy’s noir suffers from many flaws which bog it down to just a sub-par film with a severely anemic pacing.

• For more information on "Red 71," visit the official website.

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