A committed performance from the recent Oscar nominee is one of the few highlights of a lethargic, emotionally vacant film about a Pentecostal community
There are two skilled performers making the best of their underwritten roles in Them That Follow, a rather dull slab of Appalachian dirge premiering at this year’s Sundance film festival. One is the never not welcome Olivia Colman, fresh off receiving her first Oscar nomination for The Favourite. The other is a snake.
Both are ferociously committed, even terrifying at times, and both deserve far more than this frustratingly lifeless attempt to provide insight into a specific community, rarely seen on screen. We’re in the world of Pentecostal snake-handlers, deep in the wilderness, and a congregation led by pastor Lemuel (Walton Goggins, on autopilot). His daughter Mara (Alice Englert) is being prepped for marriage to a local boy, whom she has little interest in, while she tries to limit her affection for the non-believing son of gas station attendant Hope (Colman). Mara has a secret that weighs heavy and threatens to destroy the lives of those around her.