This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Dark Art
Plot Overview
Serial killer(s) send postcards to the press
every eight days before killing and maiming young married couples in their
respective European cities. New York Detective Jacob Kanon (Jeffrey Dean
Morgan) views the mutilated bodies of his daughter and her husband in
London, but he's outside his jurisdiction so can't help the
investigation. Swedish Journalist Dessie Lombard (Cush Jumbo)
describes him as “a good detective, a good father, a good man.”
By contrast she writes, “It's obvious from the brutality of the
crimes that the killers had a horribly abusive childhood.”
There's art on the walls of the victims or in their studios or even in the police station, telegraphing some kind of artistic connection in the plot. A Munich policeman observes a similarity between the position of the bodies at his crime scene (“He poses 'em”) and a famous painting. Then they discover similar correspondences with all of them. Artists, we suppose, being somewhat barmy to begin with can go over the edge from a dysfunctional family.
A parallel plot line follows young married
couple Mac (Ruairi O'Onnor) and Sylvia (Naomi Battrick) Randolph who
join up with another young couple Pieter (Dylan Devonaid Smith) and
his wife Nienke (Sallie Harmsen) all touring Europe. Nienke owns a
tattoo parlor and has inked much of her husband's body. She's been
to art school. Sylvia also “appreciates art” and is filling
a “memory book” of mementos, both theirs and of others.
They congregate together at a sailor's bar called
Miss Behave Bar. It has an icon in the window of
a fish being gutted with a knife. At this point a suspicious audience
might want to shout out a warning.
The screenplay being based on a novel by James Patterson, it's likely that the journalist and the detective will team up together as happened in another of his novels (“I promise not to get in your way, Lieutenant, if you don't get in mine”—58.)
Ideology
There appears to be a generational fault at play along the lines of, (Prov. 30:11) “There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.” Simon hated his father so much he outed him to the police for his financial improprieties. He and his art-educated sister Marina found the only positive thing about their mother was that she tried to protect them from their abusive father. But then she committed suicide.
(Prov. 30:12) “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.” They felt that their forbidden love should be accepted by society, because love is love regardless of its form (“Other forms of love rejected by society are now accepted by most.”) (1Cor. 6:9-11) “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, … , nor abusers of themselves with mankind, … shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” Incest falls on the list of fornications, and “abusers of themselves with mankind” refers to practicing homosexuals. Christians, some of them, being washed and sanctified have come out of those very lifestyles never to return. (Gal. 5:19-21) “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; … fornication, uncleanness, … wrath, … , Envyings, murders, … and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” “Belgium was one of the first countries to legalize same-sex marriage.” That just made it seem acceptable in men's eyes but not to God.
(Prov. 30:13) “There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.” These two serial murderers characterized themselves as misunderstood artists standing alongside the greats.
(Prov. 30:14) “There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.” They dismembered their victims.
Production Values
“” (2020) was directed by Danis Tanovic. Its screenplay was written by Andrew Stern and Ellen Brown Furman, from a screenplay by Liza Marklund & Tove Alsterdai and Tena Stivicic, based on the novel, The Postcard Killings by James Patterson and Liza Marklund. It stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Famke Janssen, and Cush Jumbo. The actors delivered credible performances, all of them. Morgan's was especially good, displaying a wide range.
It's Not Rated but exhibits little to be objected to aside from the detective's habit of cursing God's name and some graphic shots of mutilated bodies. It's in English, Swedish, Russian, German, and French, with subtitles accompanying the non-English languages. It starts in English and ends in Russian. The background music creeps into one's mind. It uses some unusual special effects to good advantage.
Review Conclusion w/ Christian Recommendation
The movie is creepy but in a living art kind of way that's unlikely to keep one up at night or even be much remembered. It's a connect-the-dots plot with only three dots to line up, but they can be tricky like a grifter's shell game. It's a good ha, ha movie.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability for children: Not rated. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five. Special effects: Well done special effects.
Works Cited
Scripture is taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Patterson, James. The Midnight Club. Copyright © 1989 by James Patterson. New York: Warner Books, Inc. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org