I want to see Alicia Vikander in everything I watch.
She's talented. She's beautiful. And I've never seen her take a performance
off. Except for the few times she's been used right, she specializes in being
the best part of OK-to-bad movies. I'm less enthusiastic about Riley Keough.
The main reason I know her at this point is because she's Elvis Presley's
granddaughter and her name keeps popping up in movies I sort of remember (and Mad
Max: Fury Road). The idea of a quiet, Japan-set mystery thriller sounded
great. Frankly, it sounded pretty similar to The Perfection, which
turned out to be a blast.
Sadly, the payoff of the movie wasn't worth the time
put in. It's a detached movie. I was aware the whole time that I wasn't being
told an incomplete version of the truth. Vikander had a secret. For a while, it
looked like a psychological thriller, appearing to be about Vikander descending
into madness. Then, when everything is finally revealed, the truth is the exact
thing you figured it would be at the beginning. It dressed itself up like a
smarter movie before revealing that it's a pretty straightforward one. I was
surprised when the end credits started, because I kept expecting some bigger
reveal or twist. It feels like the book this was based on either focused more
on the crime element or only touched on it as a way to get to more emotional
truths. The amount of focus it gets in the movie is very disjointed; like they
couldn't decided whether or not it should be an afterthought.
Probably the most damming thing I can say about the
movie is that it wastes Alicia Vikander. There's nothing about her role that
couldn't be done by any competent performer. It's a strange use of an Oscar winner.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
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