Homage is a slice of American Gothic set in the desolate Southwest. The psychological thriller focuses on three emotionally crippled people whose inter-dependence threatens to ignite some unpleasant results. Based on a Mark Medoff play [The Homage That Follows] and adapted by the writer, the film opens with the murder of Lucy (Sheryl Lee), a sitcom actress who’s returned to New Mexico to patch up a fractured relationship with Katherine (Blythe Danner), her widowed mother. The perp, Archie (Frank Whaley), is a mathematician working as caretaker and gardener on Katherine’s ramshackle farm.
The events leading up to the conclusion are related in flashback as ‘witnesses’ provide key plot points to members of the tabloid press who have descended on the small community.
Director Ross Kagan Marks physically opens up the play and provides a seamless depiction of an arid environment, which serves as a chilling complement to the landscape of essentially unpleasant characters. But the story provides no real rooting interest, and the creepiness of the material tries one’s patience.
