Rating: * * * *
It was pure luck that I came across this Dutch/French thriller, and the resultant disturbing experience after having watched it, is something I’ve never felt in a long time. This is one of those rare movies where excruciating patience is rewarded with an even more excruciating denouement.
This chilling movie is about a Dutch couple, Rex Hofman and Saskia Wagter (Gene Borvets and Johanna Ter Steege respectively), and the horror that befalls them. They set out on a cross-country drive through France to go on a cycling expedition. They make a stopover along their way at a bustling gas station for refueling, and it’s at that fateful moment that Saskia is abducted. The movie even makes it quite obvious who the perpetrator is in the very next frame. According to me, the essence of any thriller/suspense movie is not the “who” but the “why”. It’s the reason that makes any ordinary thriller an edge-of-the-seat ride, and this movie certainly has that going for itself. The husband runs futilely from pole to post, searching for his wife. The movie jumps forward by three years, and we learn that Rex has resumed his failed attempts at finding his long-lost wife, and has been turning up empty handed as ever. He has a new love interest, but the obsession of finding his ex’s whereabouts drives him to the brink of insanity, leaving his present love interest a tad underappreciated and overlooked. Furthermore, to add to the twist, the kidnapper, Raymond Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), a chemistry professor with a blissful family life, has been taunting Rex by mailing him random addresses where he’d ask him to turn up, which the husband would obviously oblige to. Bernard has been following the routine for the past three years, watching and analyzing the misery Rex has been living in. Evidently, he’s interested in knowing how far Rex is willing to go to know the fate of his wife. Right then, the movie throws in another twist, by bringing these two characters opposite each other. Rex is infuriated to say the least, but more agonizing is Raymond’s nonchalance towards the dastardly acts he’s committed against Rex’s wife. Moreover, he presents Rex with a proposition which, if accepted, would lead him to the discovery of his wife’s present condition. Hesitantly, Rex makes the deal with the devil and follows whatever Raymond asks him to do, all for the elusive outcome of meeting his wife. The ending is a merciless blow to all our hopes and expectations, which is exactly why the movie would haunt and appeal to the true admirers of cinema with substance.
The brilliance of the movie lies in using the blandest of everyday items and activities, and turning it on itself to be used as a mean to commit a macabre deed. What is more, the subtle variations in tonalities of its characters and the unforeseen shifts they undergo are something very few movies deliver on. Some of the scenes in the movie, regardless of how ordinary it may seem to an amateur eye, are nothing short of unsettling. The instance when Rex leaves his wife right in the middle of a long-stretching dark tunnel, apparently ignoring her pleas to get back, is very troubling. The tension there is palpable, because we, as a viewer, fear for the worst. Another scene where Saski is shown to have a casual conversation with her soon-to-be kidnapper is ruthlessly unnerving. The scene may come across as a very normal one, more so because the director chooses to keep it that way, but it’s a far cry from normal. The glint in Raymond’s eyes and the slight twitch gives you fair idea that the guy must be salivating from inside at the sight of his unsuspecting prey. The acting is of top quality, and everyone puts up a good show. However, it’s the devil who shines in this dark thriller. Bernard-Peirre with his understated and checked performance is a force to be reckoned with. He literally took “wolf in a sheep’s clothing” notion to a whole new level. He never displayed even an ounce of regret or acknowledged that he’d done something ghastly. The events preceding the actual kidnapping, where Bernard’s character is seen preparing for the D-day has undertones of ominous humor and horror in its purest, unadulterated form.
Equally brilliant was the guy calling all the shots: the director (George Sluizer). It’s like an unwritten rule that a thriller with dark edges needs to look dark and feel even darker. But the director felt no need to go down that path, and brought the wickedness out in the daylight, on the faces of every passerby and amidst our everyday hullabaloo. He understands that with all the technical chicanery one uses to manipulate audiences into believing that they’re about to visit a gothic place, there’s something even darker that no technology could ever reproduce; the human brain. It’s there that all the unfathomable and unmentionable inceptions take place, and it doesn’t need help from any dark-side companion. The director succeeded in showing us the grossly overlooked side of the human psyche, and emphasized the notion that one needn’t be an outcast, or abnormal to go around being a menace. Normalcy is just a façade that everyone tries to adhere to. It’s what deep within that's really scary, and by letting those innards take the better of oneself, we inevitably sketch our true identity. The movie acts as a reminder that you need not be alone, or in an isolated place to let bad things happen to you. It can be in the crowded of places and carried out by a seemingly normal guy. The devil doesn’t always wear black and he certainly doesn’t always wear that sinister smile.
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