Knives Out: Daniel Craig Investigates Famous Suspects

If a suspicious character is not played by someone famous, chances are that person is not the murderer. That is why Agatha Christie movies used to have little pictures of the cast running along the bottom of their lobby posters. It showed off how many suspects there were. Winking homage is paid to those films in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out, which opens today nationwide.

Johnson’s screenplay is all about its twists, so some caginess is in order, to prevent spoilers. It is safe to say Harlan Thrombey, a celebrated mystery novelist and patriarch of a wildly dysfunctional and elitist family is about to die a premature death. Marta Cabrera, his private nurse is probably the only one who truly mourns him. The cops assume it is an open-and-shut case, but Benoit Blanc, an eccentric Southern gentleman private detective has reason to suspect otherwise. An unknown client hired his services to investigate, which is rather suspicious in itself.

Much to her surprise, Cabrera finds herself pressed into service as Blanc’s Watson. Of course, it becomes increasingly awkward for her, because she harbors her own secrets. Needless to say, everything is not as it seems.

There is quite a bit of clever misdirection going on throughout the film. It would be no fair telling, but rest assured the big reveals are all quite satisfying. The knowing humor is also mostly rather sly, but there are times when the scoldy class warfare messaging should have been throttled down. This is supposed to be larky fun, not a Theodore Dreiser adaptation.

Fortunately, Daniel Craig always keeps things snappy when he is on-screen, delighting viewers with Blanc’s impossibly lazy drawl. Honestly, that accent deserves some kind of award. It is also great fun watching him effortless shift from genteel charm to gleeful cunning.

Frankly, it is rather impressive that Ana de Armas can keep up Craig and the rest of the colorful ensemble as the almost fatally nice Cabrera. Of course, only Blanc can withstand the withering attitude Jamie Lee Curtis projects as the tartly cynical eldest daughter, Linda Drysdale. She is a totally believable chip off the block that is Christopher Plummer’s uber-yankee Thrombey (and really ought to have more screen time, but she makes the most of what she gets). Likewise, Plummer has the appropriate lordly presence, but he has some surprisingly engaging humanizing moments with De Armas.

Yet, Don Johnson might just score the biggest laughs as the venal and pretentious son-in-law, Richard Drysdale. Honestly, Johnson has yet to get the credit he deserves for his comedic chops (check out his razor-sharp cornpone turn in Cold in July, if you doubt it).

Crooked House: One of Dame Agatha’s Favorites, Finally Adapted for Film

Reportedly, Dame Agatha Christie’s two favorite novels from her voluminous oeuvre were this twisty novel from 1949 and Ordeal by Innocence. Yet, neither featured a Poirot, Marble, or Beresford (Tuppence), so they have rather been odd men out. There was an under-rated 1985 film adaptation of Ordeal, but the anticipated BBC production has been shelved, due to criminal allegations leveled against one of its co-stars. Formerly only staged for radio, Crooked House is now left alone to draft off Branagh’s pseudo-blockbuster Orient Express. French director Gilles Pacquet-Brenner helms a slyly British drawing room whodunit with his adaptation of Crooked House (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Private investigator Charles Hayward met the well-heeled Sophie de Haviland while he was stationed in Cairo for the secret service, but she inevitably broke his heart (a slight departure from the book). Nevertheless, de Haviland trusts the embittered Hayward to investigate the presumed murder of her grandfather, Aristide Leonides, a Greek immigrant who made good. Leonides’s latest trophy wife Brenda stands to inherit everything—a fact that does not sit well with the rest of the family.

For reasons that eluded just about everyone else, old man Leonides insisted on keeping his entire dysfunctional, bile-soaked family in residence at his grand country estate. That includes the newest wife Brenda, Sophie’s dilettante father Phillip, her self-absorbed stage diva mother Magda, and her wastrel uncle Roger, who has been running the family catering business into the ground. Only the widowed Lady Edith de Haviland shows much strength of character, which is why she assumed responsibility for the education of the de Haviland children, including the precocious twelve-year-old Josephine.

Obviously, everyone is a suspect, especially Laurence Brown, the children’s tutor, whom it seems has been carrying on an affair with the presumptive merry widow, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it? Like the best of Dame Agatha’s work, the murderer in Crooked House is not immediately apparent, but the real pleasure comes from all the gnashing of teeth and door-slamming that come during the investigative process. Co-screenwriter Sir Julian Fellowes (of Downton Abbey acclaim), Tim Rose Price, and Paquet-Brenner deliver all the elements in spades, including the faithful ending, which must have been quite a shocker in 1949.

Glenn Close is terrific as the tart-tongued, no-nonsense Lady Edith. She is imperious yet grounded, in a way maybe only Kristin Scott Thomas could pull off with equal style. Gillian Anderson, Julian Sands, Christina Hendricks, and Christian McKay hold up their end, chewing the scenery and effortlessly bandying about barbed dialogue as Magda, Philip, Brenda, and Roger, respectively. Terence Stamp adds his well-earned gravitas and immediately recognizably baritone as Chief Inspector Taverner, a colleague of Hayward’s murdered father. Plus, the real breakthrough-discovery is young Honor Kneafsey, who is quite remarkable as Josephine.

Not surprisingly, Hayward and Sophie de Haviland are the dullest of the lot, but Max Irons somewhat exceeds expectations, playing the former with a welcome degree of forcefulness and intelligence. On the other hand, Stefanie Martini should have portrayed the latter as more of a femme fatale, but she is really just forgettably pedestrian.

Regardless, Crooked House is a triumph of set decoration and period details. The richly detailed trappings are spot-on, while the locations (King’s College Maughan Library and the Gothic Revival Tyntesfield estate) are wonderfully suggestive of elegance and murder most foul. Honestly, it is such good fun to see an old-fashioned mystery like this hit the big-screen again. Highly recommended for fans of British mysteries and the accomplished ensemble, Crooked House opens this Friday (12/22) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Obayashi at the Japan Society: Reason

It was a multiple murder New Yorkers can well understand. It directly involved the struggle to buy and keep possession of an under-valued luxury condo. However, darker, more passionate motives also contributed to the deaths of four unrelated people in unit 2025. Eventually, an intrepid writer will mostly reveal the truth in Nobuhiko Obayashi richly complex mystery Reason (a.k.a. The Motive), which screens during the Japan Society’s Obayashi retrospective.

As the super explains during his many interviews, the unit in question always had high turnover. On the night in question, they assumed the rather unsociable Koito family were the victims, but they had secretly moved out. Suspicion therefore focused on Naozumi Ishida, who had purchased the condo through a repossession auction. We know from the in media res opening, the weary Ishida will eventually turn himself into the authorities. At his request, Nobuko Katakura, the daughter of the innkeepers reluctantly hosting the fugitive will bring the disbelieving local copper.

Throughout her investigation, the journalist will piece together a deliciously complicated story, enveloping the Koitos, the Ishidas, several sets of neighbors, and even the Katakuras. Of course, there are four dead bodies to explain: one who fell from the balcony of number 2025 and three others found brutally murdered within. Yet, aside from the crime scene, there is no obvious link between the apparent strangers. This is all quite disturbing to the residents of the two-tower complex, but despite his own family’s growing notoriety, young Shinji Koito is inexplicably drawn back to his former home.

Reason is a wonderful rich and methodical film that takes its time to build a remarkably full picture of residents and the people in their orbits. Although rarely seen, Yuri Nakae selflessly holds the film together as the journalist, much like William Alland in Citizen Kane, except she actually gets the answers she is looking for. Reason probably has thirty or forty meaty roles, each of which is memorably executed. Terashima Saki is terrific as the empathic Nobuko Katakura and Ayumi Ito is desperately haunting as Ayako Takarai, a mysterious teenaged mother who eventually crosses paths with Ishida and company. However, Ittoku Kishibe really provides the film its reflective soul as the building super, who is constantly re-interviewed to give us more context.

Obayashi and Shirȏ Ishimori’s adaptation of Miyuki Miyabe’s novel gives us enough answers to satisfy according to mystery genre standards, but leaves enough messy loose ends to remind us truth is problematic in an era of uncertainty. The story also takes a cautiously metaphysical twist in its closing sequences, wholly in keeping with Obayashi’s oeuvre. In many ways Reason is a dark film, but it is just a joy to watch him construct layer on top of layer. It is also a good value for you ticket dollar, considers it runs a full one hundred and sixty minutes. Cineastes and mystery fans of all stripes who will be in New York this weekend should make every effort necessary to see Reason when it screens this Sunday (12/6) as part of the Obayashi retrospective at the Japan Society.

Frank Capra at Film Forum: The Donovan Affair

Although everyone recognizes Frank Capra was spoofing old dark house mysteries in Arsenic and Old Lace, few understood he was also spoofing himself. That is because his very first 100% talky was a murder mystery set in an atmospheric manor, but almost nobody has seen it since its 1929 premiere. Perversely, there is decent print preserved in the Library of Congress, but none of its sixteen inch Vitaphone soundtrack discs survive. On the other hand, we have the sound for its trailer, but not the film.

As part of his efforts to mount comprehensive Capra retrospectives, Film Forum repertory programmer Bruce Goldstein has reconstructed the dialogue to produce special “live read” presentations of Capra’s The Donovan Affair. Twenty-some years in development, Goldstein and company’s stagings were a highlight of last year’s TCM Film Festival and the current Frank Capra film series soon to conclude at Film Forum.

Jack Donovan is a gambler, adventurer, and all around cad. If you didn’t want to kill him, you probably didn’t know him very well. His next dinner date will be his last. He has been invited to the birthday party of Capt. Peter Rankin, who hates his guts, because he knows Donovan has been blackmailing his trophy wife Lydia (but he has not used any of the proceeds to pay off his gambling debts). Donovan also has eyes for her step-daughter, which rankles her tightly wound fiancé. To make matters worse, Donovan happens to be available now that he seduced and subsequently abandoned the Rankin’s maid.

Yes, Donovan only has himself to blame, especially when he has the lights turned out to show off his glowing cat’s eye ring, in a scene that only works in a synch-sound picture. When the lights come on again, we see someone has availed themselves of the opportunity to dispatch the heel. Soon the blustering Inspector Killian and his oafish right-hand man Carney are on the scene, but they do not inspire much confidence, especially when their attempt to recreate the murder works a little too well.

Yes, if we could hear them, Jack Holt and Fred Kelsey are probably putting the “ick” in shtick as Killian and Carney, but Capra seems to be having great fun playing with sound. Complicating matters for Goldstein and crew, Capra experiments with conversations conducted between people in different rooms, often outside the camera’s field of vision. Plus there are plenty of those chaos-generating blackouts. It is quite the tricky shoot, featuring a good deal of skulking outside the house and the exchanging of loaded glances.

Eschewing the MST3K aesthetic, the live read cast plays it scrupulously straight within the film’s dramatic context. Of course, they still convey the larger than life nature of their characters, maintaining an appropriately madcap energy level. For many viewers, Boardwalk Empire’s Allen Lewis Rickman and The Practice’s Michael Badalucco will be the most recognizable fuming and bickering away as Killian and Carney, respectively. However, for discerning patrons, James Karen is the man, having appeared in The Return of the Living Dead, Poltergeist, Samuel Beckett’s Film, and the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Yes, wow. Naturally, he brings the voice of authority to Capt. Rankin.

From time to time, lost films are rediscovered, but this is more like a resurrection. Donovan must have been somewhat successful, since Capra’s career continued on an upward trajectory following its release. It is clearly a product of its time, but it is frankly scandalous that Columbia could misplace both the sound and the script (forcing Goldstein and his cast to supplement an incomplete dialogue transcript found in the files of the defunct New York State Board of Film Censors with studious lip-reading sessions). This Frank Capra we are talking about. Films like It’s a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington are not just movies, they are pillars of American culture.

The effort was definitely worth it. Despite the nostalgic creakiness of the film, it leads to a greater appreciation of the breadth and depth of Capra’s career and his early mastery of sound. It is also just a lot of fun to watch the dark and stormy bedlam. This is something you cannot see every day, so if Goldstein and the Donovan players ever mount a live-read near you, jump at the chance to see it. The Donovan Affair definitely added something special to Film Forum’s Capra retro, but they have yet another special to come. Following the Wednesday night (10/22) screening of You Can’t Take It With You, Rickman will moderate a Q&A with Anne Kaufman and Chris Hart, the daughter and son of playwrights George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.

IBFF Showcase ’13 (SF Bay Area): Mindfulness and Murder

Father Ananda is sort of like a Buddhist Father Brown, except he has more first-hand knowledge of the criminal element.  The former police detective intended to lead a peaceful existence as a monk, but homicide has followed him into the monastery in Tom Waller’s Thai mystery Mindfulness and Murder (trailer here), which screens this Saturday night as part of the 2013 International Buddhist Film FestivalShowcase in the Bay Area.

Father Ananda is a man to be reckoned with, but he had his reasons for leaving the job, as viewers learn over the course of the film.  When one of the boys in his monastery’s youth shelter program is murdered, the Abbott asks Ananda to investigate.  He will not be getting in the way of the cynical Inspector Somchai, who closes the case half an hour after responding to the call.  It turns out the late Noi was a hard kid to love, who was reportedly involved in the narcotics trade.  Perhaps he was not the only one.  Father Ananda soon uncovers rumors of drug-dealing monks and undercover narcs.  Suddenly, a person or persons unknown have taken an unwelcome interest in Father Ananda and his temple boy assistant Jak.

Mindfulness is one of the most picturesque murder mysteries you are likely to see anytime soon.  Cinematographer Wade Muller exploits the exotic backdrop for all its worth.  Similarly, the monastic setting adds unusual wrinkles to whodunit.  Solving the case is not merely a matter of earthly justice for Ananda. There are implied karmic implications for the monastery.

Arguably, Mindfulness is rather a bold selection for the IBFF showcase.  There is the clear suggestion it is not unheard of for less savory individuals to adopt monks’ robes as a means of gaming the system.  Its portrayal of the Thai justice system is also far from flattering.  Yet, there is no denying the virtuous nature of Father Ananda or the appeal of Vithaya Pansringarm’s quietly engaging performance.  They are an actor-character tandem worthy of a franchise.

The supporting cast is a somewhat mixed bag, but Ahbijati “Meuk” Jusakul is nicely hardboiled as Somchai, while American-born Prinya Intachai has his moments as Brother Satchapalo, the instant prime suspect.  For a random bit of celebrity, former Miss Universe Natalie Glebova (currently based in Thailand) also briefly appears as herself.

Waller’s tempo is hardly break-neck, which has its pros and cons.  Although it might be limiting for genre fans, the meditative tone perfectly suits the hero and setting.  Indeed, watching Father Ananda struggle with the demands of the spiritual and worldly is fascinating (more than even the crime story itself).  Recommended for those who enjoy cerebral mysteries, Mindfulness and Murder screens Saturday night (3/2) at the Smith Rafael Film Center, as part of this year’s IBFF Showcase in the Bay Area. 

During the Showcase, patrons will also be inspired by Dafna Yachin’s Digital Dharma, documenting the efforts of American academic E. Gene Smith to digitize and preserve the sacred and secular texts of Tibet.  Further noteworthy selections include Victress Hitchcock’s When the Iron Bird Flies, a provocative exploration of the Tibetan Buddhism’s surprising international growth during its unfortunate period of exile, and Naomi Kawase’s visually dazzling yet deeply humane Mourning Forest.  Check their website for times and venues here.

SFFS HK Cinema ’12: Nightfall

George Lam is like the Kurt Wallander of the Hong Kong police force.  At least, this inspector has good reason for being moody.  Still grieving his wife’s unexplained suicide, Lam will tackle a deeply disturbing case in Roy Chow Hin Yeung’s Nightfall (trailer here), which screens on the opening night of the San Francisco Film Society’s eagerly anticipated second annual Hong Kong Cinema Festival.

Eugene Wang has just been released from prison.  Convicted for the murder of a famous opera singer’s teenage daughter, he had to drastically harden himself to survive his sentence.  When said opera singer, Han Tsui, is discovered brutally beaten to death, suspicion naturally falls on Wang.  It is pretty clear though Tsui’s death is no great tragedy for his younger daughter, Zoe, who has grown to become the spitting image of Eva, the older sister she never knew she had.

Of course, Lam is the best and worst detective for a case like this.  A habitual scab-picker, he cannot help delving into the darker corners of the human psyche.  If you consider passing out dead drunk in the middle of the afternoon hard-boiled, than he is amongst the hardest boiled.  He is not much of a father though, nor is he a good candidate for romance.  Yet, his younger cuter partner Ying Au-yeung still has eyes for him, probably because he is played by Simon Yam.

Basically, Nighfall is a contest between Yam and Nick Cheung to see who can be more intensely wound up.  Cheung’s Wang probably wins that one, but Yam also brings an appealingly rumpled charisma to the party.  As a mystery, Christine To Chi-long’s script telegraphs every revelation well in advance, but it is a dynamic showcase for the antagonists, eventually going Mano-a-mano on a sky-gondola to Lantau.

Yam versus Cheung is definitely the main event here, but there are some fine contributions from the big name supporting cast.  Cantopop superstar Kay Tse is an energetic and realistically grounded presence as Ying, whereas the Shaw Brothers veteran Gordon Liu adds even more grizzle as an old corrupt copper.  Janice Man looks exquisitely ethereal as Zoe and Eva, but she never has much to express besides vulnerability. However, Michael Wong’s turn as the late Tsui is in a category by itself, beyond over-the-top.

Cinematographer Ardy Lam has a knack for shooting scenes at great heights while maintaining the noir vibe.  Frankly, the film might actually peak with the first scene—an adrenaline charged throwdown in a prison shower room, but Yam is always compulsively watchable and especially so here.  In fact, one can easily see his George Lam becoming a franchise character.  Very satisfying for fans of HK movies, Nightfall screens this Friday (9/21) at the New Peoples Cinema in San Francisco as part of the opening night of their 2012 Hong Kong Cinema Festival. 

Also screening Friday night is Pang Ho-cheung’s Love in the Buff, a well written look at the pitfalls of romance with a highly attractive cast and an appealingly swinging soundtrack.  Recommended for movie-goers looking for something smart but not too heavy, it also screens Sunday (9/23).  See the full review here.

Wallander: the Revenge—the Detective Mellowed with Age

Ystad police inspector Kurt Wallander just turned sixty-two—and they were a hard 62.  Though still not exactly a people person, the detective is relatively at peace with himself now and even has close friends on the force to get hammered with.  Inconveniently, a series of spectacular crimes will soon interrupt their revelry in Wallander: The Revenge (series trailer here), the first episode of the second season of the Swedish television adaptation of Henning Mankell’s bestselling crime series, which opens theatrically in New York this Friday (with the entire second season already available on VOD).

Wallander is good at his job, but he is not a counter-terrorism expert.  Unfortunately, when the sub-station powering Ystad is destroying by a sophisticated set of explosives, it appears he has such a situation on his hands.  To make matters worse, the gallery owner hosting a controversial exhibit of Muhammad portraits is viciously murdered under the cover of the resulting darkness.  Is the assassination related to the terrorism attack?  The national authorities assume so, but investigating will be difficult until power is restored to the Malmö exurb.  The rash of exploding cars does not help either.

Given the big picture themes of terrorism and multicultural tension, Revenge, competently helmed by Charlotte Brändström, is reasonable cinematic for series television (clocking in at ninety minutes, much like most installments of Masterpiece Mystery).  In fact, it also premiered in Swedish cinemas before the second season subsequently bowed on TV.  However, as a whodunit, it is not particularly baffling.  Viewers are clearly primed for resolution absolving all suspicious terrorist types in favor of a more politically correct villain.  Indeed, Revenge largely delivers accordingly.  (However, the precise culpability for each crime is ultimately rather vaguely defined—a bit of a shortcoming for a straightforward procedural.)

Wallander will be familiar to many American mystery fans from Kenneth Branagh’s Emmy winning turn as the agonizing detective on the PBS-BBC English language series.  Actually one of three Swedish actors to play the part, Krister Henriksson is decidedly jowlier and less angst-ridden than Branagh.  Over time, that probably makes him a more welcome home viewing staple.  Nonetheless, he has some genre-fan pleasing moments of prickly intensity in Revenge.

American Swedish mystery enthusiasts will also enjoy seeing Lena Endre, recognizable as Michael Nyqvist’s co-editor and on-and-off lover in the Dragon Tattoo franchise, appearing here as Wallander’s potential romantic interest, state prosecutor Katarina Ahlsell.  In Revenge, they show the promising stirrings of some smart, mature chemistry.

It is fun to watch Henriksson’s Wallander go about his police business, when not walking his beloved dog or growling at his inter-agency colleagues.  However, Revenge’s is a wee bit polemical, at the expense of the story’s credibility.  Still, the character is an established international warhorse, so it is sort of reassuring to see him return in a more contented frame of mind.  For Wallander/Mankell diehards, it opens this Friday (6/1) in New York at the Cinema Village and is available with the rest of the second season of Wallander on VOD and DVD.

Japan Cuts ‘11: Into the White Night

It is not clear whose parents are worse. For a time, the police suspect Yukiho Karasawa’s mother of murdering Ryoji Kirihara’s degenerate pawnbroker father. The mystery will haunt the investigating detective for years in Yoshihiro Fukagawa’s Into the Night (trailer here), the closing film of the 2011 Japan Cuts New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.

Kirihara’s mother was carrying-on rather openly with their slimy employee Matsuura, while Kirihara’s father furtively met Karasawa’s mother. There are a lot of incriminating circumstances, but not a lot of hard evidence. When Karasawa’s mother apparently commits suicide after the body of her other lover is discovered with Kirihara’s lighter, the case is conveniently closed. However, Detective Sasagaki cannot forget the eyes of the two ten year olds.

Over the next two decades, the three go in seemingly disparate directions. The strikingly beautiful Karasawa rules her prep school and university through her charm and manipulations. Kirihara drops out of conventional society, working on the margins of the illicit sex business. Sasagaki neglects his career due to family crises, but as his retirement approaches, individuals tangentially related to the old case start to turn up dead.

Most aptly compared to the Red Riding trilogy, Fukagawa’s two and a half hour Night is an ambitious and coolly stylish mystery, incorporating multiple time frames and some truly shocking subject matter. The influence of the past is always keenly felt in the present, while viewer sympathies are repeatedly upended. Fukagawa peels back each layer quite assuredly, rendering it all with an austere grayness to match the film’s moral ambiguity.

Without question, Shiori Fukumoto and Yuki Imai serve as the film’s cornerstone. Indeed, they are hauntingly affecting as young Karasawa and Kirihara, respectively. Maki Horikita is also scary good as the older, driven Karasawa. However, Eiichiro Funakoshi is truly the glue that holds it all together. He achieves a level of pathos worthy of high tragedy, yet completely believable thanks to his down to earth presence.

The emotionally bracing Night is a heck of a hard film to shake off. Though viewers might anticipate the general direction it takes, the totality of its implications are heavy to the point of overwhelming. This is bravura filmmaking, but the relatively long running time might be an unfortunately difficult obstacle to clear for legit American theatrical distribution. That would be a shame, because the highly recommended Night is one of the best films screening anywhere on the domestic festival circuit this year. Friday’s closing night screening (7/22) is already sold-out, but stand-by (or resold) tickets are well worth investigating when this year’s Japan Cuts concludes at the Japan Society.

Chabrol’s Inspector Bellamy

Conceived as a tip of the cap to Belgian crime novelist Georges Simenon and his best known sleuth Jules Maigret, the rumpled Inspector Paul Bellamy is renowned for his intuitive insight into the criminal mind. That’s his job and he’s good at it. However, he is somewhat distracted by family issues of late, not that he is supposed to be working while on holiday. Yet, as often happens in the paperback mysteries he reads, a new case finds him anyway in Inspector Bellamy (trailer here), the fiftieth and final film of Nouvelle Vague suspense auteur Claude Chabrol, which opens this Friday in New York at the IFC Center.

Bellamy is whole-heartedly devoted to his wife Françoise, keenly aware he married quite a bit out of his league. His mind might be sharp, but Bellamy is doughy and pear-shaped, often reduced to audible wheezing by the stairs of her family’s vacation house in Nîmes. Openly contemptuous of the local inspector, Bellamy cannot resist getting involved in a sensational crime dominating the regional news, especially considering one of the principals has trampled his wife’s flower beds while loitering outside their cottage.

Seeking the detective’s help, Noël Gentil has a convoluted tale of murder, fraud, and adultery to tell, but Bellamy’s attentions are somewhat divided. His self-destructive half-brother Jacques Lebas has unexpectedly appeared, predictably antagonizing Bellamy and adding stress to his marriage. While the case of the mysterious Gentil (or whoever he is) largely plays out off-screen, Bellamy struggles with his domestic front—not his strong suit.

The supposedly retired Gérard Depardieu might be the Brett Favre of French cinema, but he is a perfect fit for Bellamy. He certainly looks like an out of shape middle-aged man, while also projecting a shrewd intelligence and a deep-seated insecurity. Indeed, jealousy and resentment arguably play a greater role in the film than old-fashioned greed, with Bellamy turning out to be one of the primary offenders, along with his prodigal half-brother. As the bitter Lebas, Clovis Cornillac holds his own quite well, convincingly suggesting the years of contentious history shared between them.

Chabrol, who only recently passed-away last month, was a master of the cerebral thriller. Especially in his later films, he often relegates the nefarious skullduggery to the deep background, only dropping hints amid the ostensibly benign action on-screen (his subtly sly The Flower of Evil is a near perfect example). While we do see Bellamy pursue his investigation, Chabrol once again engages in some artful sleight of hand. As usual, Chabrol’s longtime collaborators cinematographer Eduardo Serra and composer-son Matthieu Chabrol also give Bellamy a rich, classy luster befitting his final cinematic statement.

Productive to the end, Chabrol was a giant of cinema, who will be missed. Even his misfires like A Girl Cut in Two still make for interesting viewing. Though Bellamy is a small, intimate work compared to some of his signature suspensers, it certainly features a huge star in Depardieu. Watching their first and final collaboration is definitely worth the wait when Bellamy opens this Friday (10/29) at the IFC Center in New York.

French Christie: Towards Zero

It is always satisfying to hear: “I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve called you all together,” those magic words that signify an Agatha Christie book or movie is getting down to business. Technically, the Colombo-like Commissaire Martin Bataille never utters that fateful phrase, but that is about the only thing missing from Towards Zero (trailer here), Pascal Thomas’s French take on Dame Agatha now available on DVD.

A diverse cast of characters has gathered at the elderly Camilla Tressilian’s stately but secluded coastal mansion, but they all brought plenty of baggage. Of course her nephew and heir Guillaume Neuville is on hand with his beautiful but difficult second wife Caroline. Complicating matters, Aunt Camilla has also invited Aude, his wronged wife #1. At least she can count on the attentions of family friend and itinerant wanderer Thomas Rondeau, who is so eager to reconnect with the ex-Madame Neuville, he fails to recognize the torch Marie-Adeline, Tressilian’s retainer-companion, faithfully carries for him.

Assembling this party in an isolated setting is bound to lead to murder, but the first victim is a relative outsider, Tressilian’s old friend, the distinguished police inspector Charles Trévoz. When asked for a career anecdote, he regales the dinner party with the tale of a precocious child murderer he encountered years ago. Though he refuses to even specify a gender, he assures everyone he would recognize him or her anywhere. In retrospect, this is probably a mistake. As Bataille investigates Trévoz’s subsequent death, he soon finds plenty more work where that came from.

Zero is quite an entertaining cozy whodunnit, appropriately filled with hothouse jealousies and long buried secrets. Unfortunately, for the sake of fairness, it rather clumsily drops an all-too-obvious clue early on. Still, it is largely faithful to the spirit of great previous Agatha Christie adaptations, down to the thumbnail pictures of the cast running across the bottom of the DVD cover. Yet, it also occasionally displays an enjoyably absurdist flourish just to remind us its French.

Perfectly rumpled, François Morel looks like an old shoe as the shrewd Bataille. In contrast, Jacques Serys is an elegant scene-stealer as the ill-fated Trévoz and Laura Smet is convincingly hot and overwrought as the second Madame Neuville. Unfortunately, Chiara Mastroianni comes across a bit flat as the wounded ex.

While not on the level of the Finney and Ustinov Hercule Poirot films, Zero is definitely superior to the recent BBC Christie adaptations airing on Masterpiece Mystery. Smart and sophisticated, Zero is definitely worth catching-up with on DVD.