Walk the Darkness Down

In the moody latest from Magariel (after One of the Boys), married couple Les and Marlene, who live in a Northeastern seaside village they call Neverland, have grown apart after the accidental death of their daughter, Angie, years earlier. Les, a commercial fisherman, spends his nights in his boat, trawling dangerous waters with his crew and working himself ragged to deal with his pain. The boat’s band of outcasts includes JW—so-called because he has a John Wayne quote for every situation—along with Monk, Booby, and Hoover. Like Les, they’re all on the run from one trauma or another. Meanwhile, Marlene drives through the rundown district called the Villas by night, which is where she meets and comes to care for Josie, a homesick sex worker in thrall to a cunning man named Bill. With Josie acting as a buffer, Les and Marlene learn to function like a family again and come to terms with the loss of Angie. After Les has a close call at sea and Marlene confronts Bill, they reconsider their future together. Magariel effectively portrays Neverland as a wild place populated by lost souls, stripped in his words of “the illusion that the world has been conquered, charted, angled for human need.” Downbeat and atmospheric, this psychological drama gets the job done. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency. (Aug.)