Mysterious Circumstance: The Death of Meriwether Lewis

I was anxious to watch this and learn something about American history that I was woefully ignorant of.

And I remain so.

After less than 30 minutes, I couldn't take anymore of Governor Meriwether's outrageous and "WAY over the top" antics. I felt as if I were watching a movie from the 1930s with the massively exaggerated movements in whatever he was doing.

The dog was a delight - as are all animals, but he couldn't save Meriweather's performance.

The cell phone text notices going off randomly were also an unwelcomed bonus. If I were a betting person, I'd bet it was the director's phone.

Again - I DID want to like this film!! I tried! "They" just made it impossible.

The dog got it an extra star.

Mysterious Circumstance portrays what it feels like when you and your friends gather together to theorize the truth of mysteries. The diversity seen in everyone's ability to act through completely different scenarios and provide a variety of personalities per character is an accomplishment of masterful talent.

The film eludes to many different possible outcomes without ever stating to know more than is common knowledge. The film is an experience of it's own kind. It's almost an Anthology of possible scenarios. The funnest part is going through each story and spotting the similarities and differentiating between them.

What comes off as a passion project to many will also come to be a lovable classic in the homes of many who love a good mystery and to those who love theorizing.

From reading "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose, I was acquainted with the suspicious "suicide" of the famous explorer Meriwether Lewis at a Tennessee "tavern." "Mysterious Circumstances" is an exploration of alternative versions of what might have happened, filmed with considerable attention to authenticity in locale and the era. Many historians have accepted the "suicide" version, but Lewis was traveling on a notoriously dangerous trail, and shooting oneself twice and then cutting oneself "from head to foot with a razor" is a suspicious "suicide," to say the least. The various accounts of the same event are evocative of Akira Kurosawa's approach to storytelling in "Rashomon" (1950), the one flaw being that the versions here are not clearly accounts by different witnesses to the same events but are perhaps rooted in later speculation by those who found the accepted version singularly bizarre. The first version depicted in this movie seems to be close to the version that prevailed, essentially by default. And it is, indeed, played as singularly bizarre. Two previous reviewers (action addicts, no doubt) rated this movie 1 star; 11 other previous reviewers rated it 9 or 10 stars. No way does this average 4.8. My quick calculation makes it about 7.6. This film is worth watching if you have more than a juvenile attention span and are intrigued by mystery.

I agree with the "over-the-top" performance by Evan Williams. Reminded me of a high-school play. And the woman said, "It was very cold, even for October". Yet not a single character was wearing a coat? As others have commented, it does nothing to solve this historical mystery. I suppose one positive thing is, it made me research actual events about this man's untimely death. Apparently it is yet unsolved, and his family wanted his body exhumed, 100+ years after the fact. I'm in agreement with those who say suicide is unlikely. I gave up on this film about 20 minutes in. Good luck to you if you hold on longer.

In film class at college... I've seen better. I'm not sure what the script looks like... But execution is delivered. Living in the early 1800s... Everybody is clean.

I felt like I was watching a reenactment. Accents and some of the characters... Misplaced. Costuming, accurate... But definitely not fitting for sleeping in the woods or living in the time. For where they were at.

Script and dialogue... did not captured my attention. I constantly wondered where things were going. So sorry.

I really wanted to like this movie. Have studied Lewis and Clark as a kid and have copies of their journals but this movie seems to have disconnected from history. Almost like somebody got a script and a cheap budget and put a film together. It just did not fit. It did not seem believable and it was a bit of a labor to watch.