Blue Diary (2012)

As usual, Hoffman draws her characters with great care: Ethan, a hardworking carpenter and volunteer firefighter in a small Massachusetts town who, unbeknownst to all, raped and murdered a 15-year-old girl many years ago; his unsuspecting and devoted wife, Jorie; their young son, Collie; and members of their community. When Ethan's heinous crime is discovered, Hoffman sets up a potentially dramatic and fascinating meditation on the question of how deeply love can change us. But then she blows it: Her usually poetic use of magical realism seems merely unbelievable here, and there's far too much ''his eyes were so dark a woman could drown in them'' nonsense.