Dr. Helen Matthews (Patricia Clarkson) is alone at the family cottage after the death of her husband James (Callum Keith Rennie). She finds a wounded stranger named Will (Scott Speedman). She pulls out a bullet. They're trapped as a storm approaches. Local handyman Al Tessier (Aidan Devine) arrives but Will claims that he's a killer. Tom (Tim Roth) is coming to kill Will.

There is a good tension early on between Clarkson and Speedman. The audience can't trust Speedman and neither can Clarkson. The tension is broken with the kiss. The premise crumbles as Clarkson gives away her trust too quickly. It's impossible to know the truth at that point and the movie stumbles. These are great actors but they can't act their way out of this muddled writing. Filmmaker Ruba Nadda seems to have recently fallen back on TV directing. The directing is fine if unspectacular but the writing has issues.

So far I've liked Patricia Clarkson in every role in which I've seen her. She first caught my attention in Todd Haynes's "Far from Heaven", and she's also had good roles in "The Green Mile", "Good Night and Good Luck" and "Six Feet Under". To be certain, she was the only interesting character in "The Maze Runner". "October Gale" isn't a great movie but manages to create some suspense. The main thing that I derived from the movie is that Georgian Bay (a branch of Lake Huron on the Canadian side) looks like a nice place to visit. That's right, the unpleasant things that happen to Clarkson's character on the coast of Georgian Bay won't scare me away from that place.

Anyway, it's an OK movie. I hope that Patricia Clarkson's career continues as it has.

One of the worst movies I ever wasted time on! All the more surprising and disappointing considering that I was drawn by trailer showing Patricia Clarkson and Tim Roth, two of my favorite actors...what could go wrong? Now I'm left wondering how/why in the world they signed-on for this disaster. Also left wondering how people who paid to have this movie made feel about their investment

Earlier reviewer said this was a film "meant for an older crowd, 30+"...I'm over 60 and here to tell you it didn't work for this senior. I don't mind slow, moody films long as they have a good plot...but this just didn't. Should've trusted my instincts when they told me to bail out early in the film.

I dunno...maybe it's me and I just don't appreciate art. Nahhh...it was a bad movie.