"The Mean Season" is a promising idea gone infuriatingly wrong.

On the whole, "The Mean Season" is a solid adventure film. It is just that one wishes, considering the excellent cast and the director, that it were better.

It's more effective than it deserves to be because director Phillip Borsos has a terrific technique. He twists the conventions of the thriller form to serve his vision of the story.

Borsos does an effective job of goosing the narrative with a handful of impressively electrifying moments...