Director: Erik Van Looy
I was surprised with just how good this movie was. It’s a Belgian movie about an assassin, Angelo Ledda, with worsening Alzheimers who takes it upon himself to help the local police solve the murder of a young girl that he purposefully refused to commit.
The movie’s palette is mainly blue, which contrasts nicely against the yellow saturated quick-cut scenes meant to represent how the Alzheimers affects the assassin. The other two main characters, Vincke and Verstuyft, the police detectives assigned to solve the murder, are well fleshed out and given small arcs of their own. They even get a second movie, Dossier K, as I’ve discovered in my IMDB/Wikipedia research.
This is a slick thriller full of twists and turns. In fact, it’s full of everything. We’ve got murder and assassins, philandering husbands, corrupt politicians, poor relationships between police departments, abusive parents, and a pedophilia ring. I’m sure I’m forgetting something. But nothing feels thrown in and everything is given proper attention. I think that’s why the movie feels so full. Some elements are a tight fit, but nothing feels superfluous.
One thing I found fascinating was listening to the languages, Dutch, French, and German. The three official languages of Belgium. I’m sure there’s a distinction amongst the characters and the languages they choose to speak and when. Plus, I have very little exposure with the Belgian dialects. Listening to the movie was a good time for me.
I enjoyed it. I bought this movie on a whim, and I look forward to being able to pull this off my shelf to watch it again.
