This is a British film with Brit director Carol Morley (DREAMS OF LIFE) from her script based on Martin Amis’s 1997 novel Night Train set in the U.S.  It follows Mike Hoolihan, a homicide detective’s (Patricia Clarkson) investigation into the shooting of a leading astrophysicist and black-hole expert. 

The killing destabilizes her view of the universe and herself.  The film aims at an examination of a highly intelligent, indeed metaphysical, exploration of existence but it ends up all over the place including an out of place odd scene with Hoolihan dancing in a strip club with the other female dancers.  The solution to the killing is revealed mid-way through the film and the film meanders into her existence and guilt after.  

Clarkson is as usual, excellent in her role (minus the pole dancing) but this is a wasted performance in a character the script never bothers to get the audience to identify with.