A Jerusalem bartender and sometime graffiti artist (Ori Hizkiah) gets mixed up with a burly private investigator, a cool redhead, and a kidnapped spiritual guru in this offbeat mystery. Lured by curiosity, noble intentions, and a bribe into helping spy on the imprisoned rabbi, the bartender spends most of the film trying to figure out if he’s being played by the investigator, played by the redhead, or both, and also wondering why the rabbi seems uninterested in being rescued. It’s a slightly longish tale, but keeps you guessing while delivering a satisfying conclusion.
IMDb link
viewed 10/20/13 12N at Ritz East [Philadelphia Film Festival] and posted 10/20/13
Showing posts with label private investigator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label private investigator. Show all posts
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (***3/4)
A mystery-thriller where the emphasis is as much on the mystery part as the suspense, this adaptation of Stieg Larrson’s bestseller satisfies on every level. A disgraced journalist (Michael Nyqvist), recently convicted of libel, takes a job investigating a long-ago disappearance at the request of a wealthy old man. His investigation draws in an equally troubled female computer hacker (Noomi Rapace) even as it stirs up the old man’s family, some of whom reside on the same Swedish island where the girl disappeared.
Beyond the whodunit, and the reason, are the characters at the center of the story. (They appear in two sequels by Larrson, although the movie’s ending is not the same.) Tattooed and punky looking, the young hacker is particularly compelling as played by Rapace, although an unconventional heroine. She and the journalist have complementary skill sets and personalities. The island becomes a kind of third character. At least once, or twice, the pair get out of a scrape that maybe they shouldn’t, if strict realism were being observed. But the movie makes up for that slight lapse by saving a twist for after we find out the guilty party. There’s also an emotional component to the characters that goes beyond most suspense films.
The Hollywood remake by director David Fincher awaits a 2012 release, but for those who can read subtitles this adaptation by Dane Niels Arden Oplev will be hard to beat.
IMDB link
viewed 5/5/10 at Ritz 5 and reviewed 5/26/10
Beyond the whodunit, and the reason, are the characters at the center of the story. (They appear in two sequels by Larrson, although the movie’s ending is not the same.) Tattooed and punky looking, the young hacker is particularly compelling as played by Rapace, although an unconventional heroine. She and the journalist have complementary skill sets and personalities. The island becomes a kind of third character. At least once, or twice, the pair get out of a scrape that maybe they shouldn’t, if strict realism were being observed. But the movie makes up for that slight lapse by saving a twist for after we find out the guilty party. There’s also an emotional component to the characters that goes beyond most suspense films.
The Hollywood remake by director David Fincher awaits a 2012 release, but for those who can read subtitles this adaptation by Dane Niels Arden Oplev will be hard to beat.
IMDB link
viewed 5/5/10 at Ritz 5 and reviewed 5/26/10
Friday, October 19, 2007
Gone Baby Gone (***1/2)
A lot of movies about children in peril start out with what I call the “good mother” scene. That’s the one where we see the mom (occasionally dad) see the kid off to school or some such and is there mostly to show what a great parent the main character is, and likely to justify mayhem later visited upon the villain. The kid will usually give the parent a deep hug or say “I love you.” But the mother in this story is not a great one, or even a good one, and the first thing we see is the little girl already gone, her aunt and uncle pleading with the TV cameras of Greater Boston for her return.
If the Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) pedigree didn’t already suggest it, you’ll have already figured out that this will be darker and less sensationalistic than a typical crime thriller. Casey Affleck, who is younger brother to the first-time director Ben, plays a private detective who teams with his girlfriend (Michell Monaghan) on small-time missing-persons cases. There’s something appealing about these two, who seem more like college kids than real detectives, but more like real detectives than TV ones. They are neighborhood folks, hired by the aunt and uncle to augment the police efforts. A gray-bearded Ed Harris plays the diffidently cooperative police detective on the case, while Morgan Freeman has a small but key role as his boss.
Ben Affleck,who co-adapted Lehane’s novel, was once a neighborhood guy too, and he has a real eye for the sort of seedy bars and nondescript eateries that make up working-class Boston, although a climactic scene takes place atop a tor outside of town. (The accents are authentic, too, and I missed a bit of the dialogue.) That’s not what makes the movie great, though, nor is it the machinations of the investigations, the quick pacing, the nuanced portrayal of the junkie mother, or the surprising turns of the plot. (If I was going to criticize anything here, it’d be that the kidnapper does not seem to have thought about the practicalities of his plan as much as I’d have thought.) It’s the ethical dilemma that anyone who sees the movie will be talking about.
For all the people who cast Ben Affleck as an acting lightweight, unfairly I think, it’ll be hard to pin that label on him as a director.
IMDB link
reviewed 10/18/07 and 10/19/07
If the Dennis Lehane (Mystic River) pedigree didn’t already suggest it, you’ll have already figured out that this will be darker and less sensationalistic than a typical crime thriller. Casey Affleck, who is younger brother to the first-time director Ben, plays a private detective who teams with his girlfriend (Michell Monaghan) on small-time missing-persons cases. There’s something appealing about these two, who seem more like college kids than real detectives, but more like real detectives than TV ones. They are neighborhood folks, hired by the aunt and uncle to augment the police efforts. A gray-bearded Ed Harris plays the diffidently cooperative police detective on the case, while Morgan Freeman has a small but key role as his boss.
Ben Affleck,who co-adapted Lehane’s novel, was once a neighborhood guy too, and he has a real eye for the sort of seedy bars and nondescript eateries that make up working-class Boston, although a climactic scene takes place atop a tor outside of town. (The accents are authentic, too, and I missed a bit of the dialogue.) That’s not what makes the movie great, though, nor is it the machinations of the investigations, the quick pacing, the nuanced portrayal of the junkie mother, or the surprising turns of the plot. (If I was going to criticize anything here, it’d be that the kidnapper does not seem to have thought about the practicalities of his plan as much as I’d have thought.) It’s the ethical dilemma that anyone who sees the movie will be talking about.
For all the people who cast Ben Affleck as an acting lightweight, unfairly I think, it’ll be hard to pin that label on him as a director.
IMDB link
reviewed 10/18/07 and 10/19/07
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