Adapting Downtown Owl, the novel by Chuck Klosterman, co-directors Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater, who also wrote the screenplay, deliver a messy, aimless film. It has moments of intrigue that are quickly extinguished by the film’s attempts at doing too much. The film’s depiction of small town life in the early 80s is grim, but if it had centered on the ways in which its characters feel stuck it might have made up for everything else. The adaptation is a missed opportunity made up of scattered pieces with no clear vision.
