Forest Whitaker has a wonderful nervous energy about him. From the worrisome Pfc. Edward Montesque Garlick in "Good Morning, Vietnam" to the quick-tempered Cyrus Cole in "Smoke," Whitaker always comes off as someone not entirely comfortable in his own skin. Abraham Holt in "A Little Trip To Heaven" is no exception.

When we first meet Whitaker's character, he seems reasonably self-assured. At the scene of a bus accident, Abe, an insurance investigator, calmly tells the busload of victims he knows many of them have sneaked on the bus after the accident, thinking they could cash in with a settlement. But he says the bus has hidden surveillance cameras. So anyone who got on the bus after the crash will be arrested. He then closes his eyes and counts to 10 to give these people a chance to leave discreetly. When he opens his eyes only four or five people remain.

Everything about Abe makes him look like he doesn't belong. He speaks in a strange accent that sounds like a mixture between Scottish and someone from Boston. He stutters when he attempts to lie and his face is constantly covered in nervous sweat. He's also, to the best of my recollection, the only African American in the entire film. He's a total outsider.

Abe's boss Frank (Peter Coyote) sends him to a small Minnesota town to investigate another crash site. The charred body at the scene may be that of Kelvin Anderson, a scam artist who is surprisingly well-insured. Abe's somewhat suspicious as the supposed identification hinges on a driver's license found in the car's glove compartment, which conveniently was still readable after the fire. His investigation leads him to Kelvin's sister, Isold (Julia Stiles) who is the sole beneficiary of the million-dollar life insurance policy and her husband Fred (Jeremy Renner) who owns the same model car as the one from the accident.

"A Little Trip To Heaven" has a noirish quality with a highly effective visual style. Director Baltasar Kormákur (101 Reykjavík) sets the film in the U.S. but makes no attempt to have movie the look like it takes place there instead of in Iceland where it's shot. Even the names Isold and Thor (her child) seem out of place for Minnesota.

Ottar Gudnasson's dream-like cinematography presents a hyper-real, symbolic universe. Not only does it rain and snow to communicate mood, but every frame bombards the senses. The days are saturated with so much colour and bright lights that you almost feel like you have snow blindness. Meanwhile the nights are so incredibly dark, it's amazing you can see anything at all, but lights from various sources reflected off of things, such as the metallic paint of cars and Isold's pale face, provide just enough detail to make out the scene. It's one of the most fascinating control of light and darkness I have ever seen and it adds a feeling of cold isolation to the film.

This isolation is in stark contrast to the Quality Life Insurance commercials the characters see on television. There, to the tune of Bill Withers' classic "Ain't No Sunshine," an old couple sits together on a park bench on a beautiful summer's day. Somewhere else in the park, a young couple jog together. Everybody seems really happy as the ad's narrator explains the value of getting life insurance.

The commercial is very funny and it also puts everything into perspective. Despite Abe's determination to get to the bottom of the mysterious death, he's not a cop or even a private detective. He is, as the town sheriff call him, a "loss adjuster." He is there simply to find out if there's a reason not to pay the claim. This practice is quite common as we see when Frank explains to a widow why she's not getting her husband's full death benefits. Like clockwork, Abe offers her a box of tissues at the appropriate moment for her to cry.

The entire cast is solid but the film truly belongs to Whitaker as he slowly pieces together the truth. Some twists are better than others and some details we know from the start, which makes it less of a mystery. Whitaker gives a tender performance as a man committed to his job, but who begins to questions its morality as he starts feeling compassion for the woman he's investigating.

"A Little Trip To Heaven" screened as part of the Special Presentations program at the Toronto International Film Festival.