A career or vocation. I've been looking for this movie for a long time. Watched once in the early 90s, remembered two or three interesting scenes, and the actual detective component.
Having reviewed it now, I am not disappointed at all, the film is even much better than I thought, but of course it is a film of its time.
First of all, there is a good detective intrigue, there is a series of murders, which we learn from the description, and everything that happens next is very well and atmosphericly staged, in accordance with the best traditions. I did not remember the effect of clairvoyance and drawings, but this element significantly animates the plot and warms up the intrigue.
More interestingly, the scenes and methods of murder seemed far ahead of time, and more suitable for the early 2000s. This is another advantage of the film, the implementation of murders is very interesting, and not beaten 100%. But in fact, this is a characteristic of that time: to make a stunning plot, a strong atmosphere, to keep the intrigue until the very end, to come up with even some special highlights, and end with a standard, banal, unjustified, not outstanding, although shocking, and unexpected, finale. It’s just that all these “interesting” murders are not glued to the end. They would be very well suited for the film “Saw”, but it is in “Saw” that we see the finale, not inferior to the plot itself.
What are the main strengths here?
1) The investigation of a series of murders.
2) Using the clairvoyance effect.
(3) Unconventional methods of murder.
(4) Very tough, naturalistic, but still do not go beyond the stage.
(5) Good atmosphere.
(6) Unusual police hobby.
7) This is an unexpected ending.
(8) Interesting “Hints”.
(9) Confrontation between police and television. Career and vocation.
All this again with a reservation for the time being, given that this is the second work of the director, put very well.
What are the disadvantages?
1) Still, the plot, in fact, the initial tie-up is far-fetched, in some films, it may not matter, but here, when you begin to think about how this could be and why everything is so difficult, the answer is only one: to have an interesting investigation, but from the motivation of the characters it does not follow. Personally, I did not understand why such complex methods of killing, and how to come to this. And the very motivation of the murder seems to me incomprehensible ... I can not specify further, because I will have to spoil...
2) Again, too standard ending, not combined with a complex backstory. But the finals are very rarely outstanding even in masterpiece films.