Family secret A criminal thriller about the investigation of an old and extremely complicated case that fell on the shoulders of the main character - a journalist, is an example of a rather classic detective story that combines all the necessary components. And also filled with European style and author’s skill of the director, with the original presentation of many elements, already on top of the main plot-investigation.
The film is interesting and exciting even despite the voluminous timing, as several intertwined lines require a more competent and detailed approach to their disclosure. And all the additional scenes, which have absolutely nothing to do with solving the family secret of millionaires, very clearly complement the plot lines of the characters, their relationships, the stories of the past and thereby frame their surroundings, detailing and saturating the images of the characters.
Having set himself the task of articulating a classic detective story and raising some acute issues of modern society, director Nils Arden Oplev achieves success with a visual and visual demonstration of all the specifics and background, telling about the skeletons in the closet for a visual understanding of the past and characters, as well as focusing on a confusing story, so that it becomes gradually more understandable, and not even more difficult to perceive, as it often happens. Demonstration is good for the film, causing praise, everything is visual and accessible, quite simply with all its intrigues and incredible complexity, at first glance. Playing with images, a wonderful woven tandem is created, which the director conducts on one side of the clear lines of good and evil.
Good characters are loyal and dedicated to their cause to the very end, and you feel sympathy for them even if they sometimes do some cruel things. The antagonist, as befits a good detective, is extremely difficult to guess, and it will always be the one on whom suspicions practically will not fall, and in addition to the denouement of the criminal case, there will also be a spectacular plot twist, which will finally put everything in its place.
The gloomy tones and winter landscapes of the action are not brightened even by the mention of Christmas, the disturbing events of the past only give rise to new cruelty. There is no denying the level of violence here. It would seem quite ordinary detective investigation, where again rises some event of the old time, and everyone around tells the main character to clean up and not get into this case, overgrown with an alarming and terrible thriller. Hooligans, Nazis, rapes, murders – everything is intertwined in the plot, weighing it down with cries of pain and groans of despair. But, perhaps, this goal was set by the filmmakers to make the hard movie look like it is. And side episodes sometimes raise much more interesting issues than the main storyline, and the main semantic load is not on the contrast of good and evil, but on the emphasis on real violence that can happen all over again.
Alcoholic fathers, beating wives, or guardians, who turn into corrupt prostitutes those who are supposed to be protected, vengeful and cruel children, lies and slanders around - everything is pulled together by gray clouds around, creating a mirror of public life, or rather some of its layers, from the bottom, to which belongs the companion of the main character, looking like a punk and on the verge of care in a psychiatric hospital, to the top of society, where old millionaires carefully keep their terrible secrets and callously suppress the light of a new generation.
Such things can be viewed as private manifestations of inhumanity and as interesting metaphors, accessible to understanding and direct interpretation. That complements in fact the film with a double meaning, and thus makes you think after watching it. And not so much over himself, because it is unlikely that such perverts, maniacs and mentally unhealthy will watch him, but rather makes you look around and look at the underside of public life. Quite often it is customary to show a kind of “dirty world” of alcoholics and drug addicts, and therefore this film is completely different, its original, expensive, without causing repetitions and considering similar problems from other angles and on specific examples. In this, its difference from its peers, and even quite secondary or classic detective content, acquires a new vision of the original problem due to its framing with the revealed problems and a pronounced background of monstrous events and metaphors available for viewer understanding.
A long and complex thriller in its components, which does not represent a simple entertainment detective of a serial nature and does not pretend to be a meager title of a one-time story, like most blossomed book stories. Such a movie is clearly not for a large mass of viewers, but it has everything to hook the lover of the genre, as well as simply touch the casual viewer. Enjoy the visual clarity of accentuating the attention, keep in suspense with its contents and extremely sinister music, and in the end result in a pleasant denouement with a whole set of endings, one for each storyline. And because the film “Men who hate women” is recommended for viewing, as long as there was a mood specifically for such a movie, and its viewer it certainly will find, as any crime finds its disclosure and resolution – sooner or later.
10 IZ 10
Original