George O.
Singleton
30 Second
Bottom Line: A man in his twenties has the duel existence of having a
"normal" love life with a 16-year-old woman when he is with her and during the
times that he is out of town "on business", he is a serial killer. Based upon a
true story.
Story
Line: The movie opens with the gruesome discovery of a multiple homicide and
then jumps ahead five years. We don't learn right away what the connection is
but we can guess it has something to do with Kurt (Stefano Casseti). He meets
Lea (Isild Le Besco) in a bar and they become friends and then lovers. They go
for car rides, walk along the beach and her infatuation with Kurt fits the path
of losing her virginity because of his intentions and stated feelings of being
in love. Lea is a beautiful bashful girl who changes rapidly to stripping her
clothes to make love with Kurt. She becomes devoted to him but over time, comes
to realize that he is cracked, as in crazy.
When Kurt is out
of town, a series of crimes occur, some violent and some not. He robs people and
usually releases his hostages without physical harm. Inspector Thomas (Patrick
Dell'Isola) starts to piece together a pattern of crimes which appears linked to
the same person.
As Kurt becomes
increasingly violent, a composite drawing is made and turned into a wanted
poster that Lea sees. Kurt also meets other young women in bars such as
Cathy (Leyla Sassi) with her sister and a friend who he picks up. He gets into a
fight that ends in a shooting one night and it only gets worse the next day.
Kurt tells them he's Dutch but Cathy as well as Lea and others think that he
sounds Italian. When Lea tells the authorities that Kurt may have committed
murders in Italy (which she probably did not believe because he's told so many
lies), the police then understand that they could be dealing with an insane
person who in the past has never been on their radar screen.
Building to an
inevitable crash landing, Kurt carjacks a hostage who is a very cool headed
schoolteacher (Viviana Aliberti)--she explains that she
deals with kids. The car chase that ensued is the best I can recall, as it was
exciting, realistic and terrifying. The fact that humor could exist in such a
situation may be the most terrifying of all.
Tell
Me More About It: Like another French crime drama, The Crimson Rivers,
Roberto Succo has a slick look that makes it interesting before you get
to the logic of the story or quality of the acting. Succo is
a better film because of its more realistic plot and the unfolding
of events, which are all plausible. The recent movie Chopper,
which was also based upon true events, is similar to Succo in that
it deals with a man who has moments of sanity in what otherwise is a
very criminal and cruel person. Roberto has an extended period of
relative sanity (he's always a little over the top in his reactions
with anyone other than Lea) followed by periods of criminal activity
that are usually short. Yet, when we learn about the
"girlfriend" he had prior to Lea, there is not doubt that
Kurt was in a mental institution for good reason.
Stefano Casseti
makes his acting debut in this film with a remarkable performance. The casting
throughout the film is excellent as the people that are there only for a short
time make a memorable impression. Isild Le Besco as Lea is the perfect lonely
young woman seeking the attention of a man. While she is gullible for quite
awhile, she eventually comes to understand that she must take control over her
life and move past Roberto.
If
there is a maddening part to the film other than how long it can
take to capture a criminal, its how gullible young men and women can
be and the consequences of that naiveté. We know that a man can
fall in love with and be obsessed with sex more so than the person
he is sexually active with. I've heard it called "thinking with
your dick". We tend to think that woman are smarter, but here
we learn that while sex is important to woman, that possibly the
attention they get from a man means even more. Why an attractive
young woman like Lea and Cathy would find a weird acting and
unshaven Kurt as someone to go out and quickly drop their panties
for eludes me.
Kurt has a crazy
like a fox mentality which almost defines the concept of insanity and makes one
question if a person that commits a murder because of the reason of insanity
should ever be considered rehabilitated and eventually released.
The film ends in
a rather unique way. Kurt climbs up on a roof and wants to commit suicide but
does not jump because it's only high enough to hurt himself and not die. He
knows what needs to be done and we find that justice has a way of being served.
As you walk out of the theater, you'll be thinking, "well I'll be". I thought
I'd seen it all until now.
From www.reelmoviecritic.com
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