Metaphysical whimsy asking a question of value only to schizoids and teenagers: What is Reality? A solipsistic murder mystery that we are never sure really is a murder mystery. Rather than being a film in its own right, it is mired in the narcissistic materialism and ennui of a Western culture desperate to make reality fit its desires – rather than the other way round. This explains the essential emptiness of the premise, partly masked by a realistic visual style.
A common flaw in supposedly serious films with little to say, the movie lacks the self awareness to understand its own conceit, so it - and its characters - desperately seek the solace of what isn't there. Reality is not so much being questioned, as being feared, since this film mistrusts the act of seeing - itself - and so, partly, invalidates itself. Do we see things as they are - or as we are? Moviegoing is questioned; this film being an example of the mediated, indirect experience it criticises. Could the photographer merely have imagined the murder and, figuratively and literally, blown it up out of all proportion?
We are presented here with an alienated, unearned pleasures culture; exacerbated by palliative emotional game playing; leading to the bored desire to believe life more sinister than it really is. Most people here possess deluded expectations and, given the choice, tend to reject reality. A murder really happened, but the witnesses do not really exist in their own right because the game is more real than its players to its players.
London is shot as it really is without the usual (Swinging Sixties) tourist trappings that soon date and distract attention from the universal themes explored, as the restless camera eloquently matches the restlessness of the central characters. Sort of puzzling good fun, but the boredom of the characters eventually transmutes itself into a lack of interest in the audience.
Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.
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