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'I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore'

U.S. Dramatic; 97 minutes.

The woman at the center of the dark crime comedy "I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore" is an action hero for a Sundance crowd — and, as played by the ferociously talented Melanie Lynskey, that's good enough.

Lynskey plays Ruth, a nurse's assistant who is depressed by her humdrum life. One day, she comes home to find her home burglarized. The thief took her laptop, her grandmother's silverware set, and a few of Ruth's anti-depression medications.

The detective on the case (Gary Anthony Williams) is unhelpful, spending more time blaming the robbery on Ruth's carelessness. When the "find me" app on her phone pings the laptop's location, Ruth enlists her misanthropic neighbor Tony (smartly played by Elijah Wood) to go to the house and retrieve it. The encounter is dangerous, but Ruth digs the adrenaline rush and the empowerment of reclaiming what's hers.

Soon Ruth, with Tony as sidekick, becomes amateur sleuth, tracking down her stuff and learning who might have broken into her house. The answer, though, leads the oddball neighbors into some sinister, and excessively violent, territory.

It's a territory that writer-director Macon Blair likes to call home. Blair, familiar to Sundance audiences as the lead actor in Jeremy Saulnier's bloody revenge drama "Blue Ruin," relishes the creepy atmospherics of Ruth's pursuit — and wallows a bit much in the sloppy violence of the criminals' world.

Lynskey has saved less interesting movies than this, though, and here she tears into the role — gradually growing from mousy doormat to fearsome avenger — with both hands.

— Sean P. Means —

Also showing:

"I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore" screens again at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival at the following times and venues:

• Friday, Jan. 20, 8:30 a.m., The MARC, Park City

• Friday, Jan. 20, 9 p.m., Tower Theatre, Salt Lake City

• Saturday, Jan. 21, 6 p.m., Sundance Mountain Resort Screening Room

• Wednesday, Jan. 25, 11:59 p.m., Library Center Theatre, Park City

• Thursday, Jan. 26, 9 p.m., Library Center Theatre, Park City