My mother used to say that there are three sides to every story: His, hers and the truth. The power that behind the riveting film The American Side (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) insist that “there are three sides to every story…the truth, the lie and the American Side.”

American side, as opposed to the Canadian side. This gem was filmed at the falls. And then some.

When Charlie Paczynski’s raven-haired partner is caught in the crossfire of a blackmail scheme gone bad, he trails the prime suspect to the brink of Niagara, only to receive a cryptic warning: “what’s happening here you can’t begin to comprehend”… Thrust into a world populated by a whiskey-swilling raconteur (Robert Forster), strangely bonded siblings (Matthew Broderick and Camilla Belle), and a dubious government agent (Janeane Garofalo), Paczynski joins the quest for a long-lost design by enigmatic genius, Nikola Tesla. From the eccentric eavesdropper who gives him his first clue (yes! that’s Robert Vaughn, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) every door Paczynski forces open raises the stakes.

Reminiscent of the conspiracy thrillers of the ’70s, complete with a score by David Shire and packed with nods to Hitchcock and classic film noir, The American Side is a jigsaw puzzle mystery, climaxing under the roar of the Falls as the final piece snaps into place.The acclaimed neo-noir thriller stars Greg Stuhr as private detective Paczynski, whose investigation into a mysterious suicide leads him to unravel a conspiracy involving a long-lost design by forgotten scientist Nikola Tesla.  (Hint: In 1893, Edward Dean Adams headed up the Niagara Falls Cataract Construction Company, and he sought Tesla’s opinion on what system would be best to transmit power generated at the falls.)

At the heart of the story is the mysterious nature of science and the scientific mind. The plot revolves around a lost design by the man many consider the greatest inventor of any age–the tragically overlooked Serbian-American scientist, Nikola Tesla.

At the heart of the story is the mysterious nature of science and the scientific mind. The plot revolves around a lost design by the man many consider the greatest inventor of any age–the tragically overlooked Serbian-American scientist, Nikola Tesla.
Released by The Orchard digitally and on demand earlier this year, this entertaining homage to the detective stories of yesteryear is the perfect film for suspense fans of today.

Do we dare suggest you will take a fall?