3 out of 5

Director: Gavin Miller

With the typical obliqueness, wandering narrative, and tonal mixing of a Brit mystery, ‘The Crow Road,’ based on an Iain Banks book, is spread out even further than the norm, building an undercurrent of secrets woven with sex and relationships that probably works effectively in writing but never quite layers with the main mystery when translated on screen.  Still, Crowd Road is watchable because its various threads are relatable and interesting despite feeling disparate, and lead Joseph McFadden’s earnestness – ignoring his naive pining for a flighty chick for most of the four hour-long episodes – and the mixture of the puzzlement and fascination he portrays while trying to discover what happened to his uncle – missing for seven years – is endearing; we like his Prentice an awful lot, and that eventually brings us around to wanting to know about his uncle as well.  Except director Gavin Millar and his writing crew take their sweet-arse time making the mystery seem like it’s of any consequence.  The structure of each episode can also feel disjointed, with the Uncle appearing out of Prentice’s psyche to offer vague urgings to continue his search, Prentice flashing back to his own childhood, then flashing back to his Uncle’s childhood while reading an unpublished gaggle of autobiographical pages intended for a book, then flashing back to the years leading up to the disappearance as well…  All of these elements have reasons, and, again, they’re interesting on their own – Prentice’s relationships with his father is especially well represented, the struggle for knowledge of individuality – but it’s hard to understand why you’re watching any of these threads together except that they sort of swirl around the lead character.  And the ‘how’ reveal ends up coming an episode before the ‘why,’ sort of undercutting both, and this is added to the already lacking sense of import thanks to how wandering it all is…  Very British, well cast and acted, and entertaining in its separate moments, ‘Crow Road’ is a bit of a mess while it plays out.  Having faith to barrel through to the conclusion results in getting to see some satisfying storylines play out plus one really great fight.  But overall, further evidence of how it can be questionable to try to directly translate books to screen without putting them through a ‘what works’ filter.