I wasn't that interested in this film in the first 10 minutes, then I realised that Patrick Wilson was acting quite well, the direction was good and the sets were totally authentic. The story whilst nothing new or exciting was solid enough, and by about half way there I was well into it. Who dunnit, why did they, are they gonna get caught, I was having a drink and thoroughly enjoying it until the end. Yeah the end just came, out of the blue, from nowhere. And not only that, but it left me wondering, what the heck happened then? Who did what and why? The biggest anti climax in a very long time. I gave it 4 stars but that really was for the great acting from Wilson and Marsan, and the excellent filming. It's lucky to get that tbh because of the way it abruptly came to an end.
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Boristhemoggy27 December 2016
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tomsview26 July 2017I must admit I'm still not absolutely sure what happened in the end and I watched it twice. "A Kind of Murder" is a quirky little story; a bit like an episode on the old "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".
Patrick Wilson plays Walter Stackhouse, an architect and amateur writer who is becoming disenchanted with his neurotic wife, Clara (Jessica Biel). He becomes fixated on the case of Marty Kimmel (Eddie Marsan), a man who may have murdered his wife. When Walter's wife turns up dead, an apparent suicide, a detective, Lawrence Corby (Vincent Kartheiser), suspects it may be a copycat killing and pursues both men with the single-mindedness of Peter Falk's Columbo, but with none of his affability. Finally we seem to be left not really knowing if Walter did it or is simply guilty of an overactive imagination?
Patricia Highsmith's novels are tough ones to bring to life on the screen; they never end up as profound as you think they will. The films usually start with a clever idea, but run out of puff by the final curtain - The "Ripley" films and "The Two Faces of January" come to mind.
Good looking Patrick Wilson and Jessica Biel play against type creating unexpected characters, and this combined with Eddie Marsan's strange little bookshop owner and Vincent Kartheiser's unpleasant detective give the movie an odd edge; it's a hard one to love.
The film has a subtle score with a seductive lilt by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, the go-to composers for the slightly off kilter ("Enemy" and "The Gift").
Credit also for the early 1960's setting. From the clothes, the cars and the interiors to scenes at bus terminals and train stations, it captures the look of the period and, if you were around at the time, brings back memories. It also gives the film a point of difference, especially as a film such as this has to compete with dozens of high quality, film length dramas and mini series that pour in through TV, cable and satellite.
However, it remains to be seen if "A Kind of Murder" with its fairly contrived scenario and rather annoying ending will stay in the memory. -
This was a beautifully shot film and at points I thought I was watching a Brian De Palma film, but all of that went out south in the last ten minutes.
The story had built up nicely and I was salivating at the prospect of a wild twist of an ending. The cast and the acting were all top notch and it held up nicely as the period piece it intended to be, but then things started going haywire and it all just fell apart.
It really seemed as if the movie perhaps ran out of money in the budget and then they just slapped together some incoherent garbage and called it a day. There has to be some explanation. I mean, the first hour plus of the movie was really well done so what the heck happened? It's a shame too because with the right editing it could have been great. -
rhefner20024 April 2020A Kind of Murder, based on Patricia Highsmith's book The Blunderer, is a great looking set piece, a 1950's murder mystery, but it somehow feels kind of bland. The problem is lack of character development and an emphasis on style over substance. Stylistically, the film is beautiful, from the sets to the costumes to the great old cars. But Patrick Wilson, as the architect and part time mystery writer Walter Stackhouse, turns in a rather flat performance, so we don't really feel moved by his dilemma. Eddie Marsen, on the other hand, is suitably creepy as a seeming psychopath (did he actually kill his wife? No spoilers here). Jessica Biel, as Stackhouse's neurotic, suicidal wife Clara, is two dimensional. So are Haley Bennett as Wilson's illicit girlfriend and Vincent Kartheiser as the homicide detective on the case. Much of the dialogue is stilted and unrealistic. The mystery itself is intriguing enough (Hitchcock could have done wonders with this story), but the screenplay fails to make us care about the characters. Nevertheless, it keeps you watching, mainly because Highsmith was such a good writer. For a movie that is so focused on period, there is one major gaffe: In the nightclub scene, the drummer is playing a modern set of drums. I'm a musician, and I spotted it immediately. Director Andy Goddard should have been paying attention. An oversight like this suggests that he wasn't seriously vested in the film and was just collecting a paycheck. The film is not a disaster or even a failure; it's just not totally successful. Stream it for a mindless popcorn night.
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auburnwantland29 November 2019I thought the story was interesting until the last few minutes of the movie was so disappointing. It gives us no information on how things turned out. Did he kill his wife? Did he not? I guess we'll never know!
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msgpat5 December 2019...'cos if I had I wouldn't have been led down the garden path to this movie's sinkhole of an ending.
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gradyharp26 December 2016Leave it to Patricia Highsmith to come up with implausible plots that somehow seem so possible. Based on her novel THE BLUNDERER, Susan Boyd has adapted this complex novel for the screen and Andy Goddard directs.
Walter Stackhouse (Patrick Wilson) is a rich, successful architect/writer unhappily married to the beautiful but mentally damaged Clara (Jessica Biel). His desire to be free of her feeds his obsession with Kimmel (Eddie Marsan), a man suspected of brutally murdering his own wife outside the Rainbow Grill, a bus/truck stop out on the road. But when Clara is found dead in suspicious circumstances, Walter's string of lies and his own guilty thoughts (he has become involved with a young singer Ellie – played well by Haley Bennett) seem enough to condemn him. As his life becomes dangerously entwined with Kimmel's, a ruthless cop, Detective Corby (Vincent Kartheiser) is increasingly convinced he has found a copycat killer in Walter and aims to nail both murderers. The denouement stops a bit cold and the last portion of the story seems more than slightly implausible, but the turns the story takes make it a very classy thriller.
Another aspect of the film that works well is the sets and costumes (vintage cars, crinolines, excessive smoking, etc) that clearly place this film in the 1960s. Even the selection of music by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans enhances the atmosphere. The fittingly dark atmosphere is well established by cinematographer by Chris Seager. For pure noir thriller in the vein of Patricia Highsmith's plot development this is a strong film that could be stronger with some significant editing. -
dresse-171-355174 June 2018I enjoy a good noir and a good whodunit but this one does not deliver. The 60s vibe is cool, the melodramatic Jessica Beal is OK, Patrick Wilson is believable, and Eddie Marsan is great. It's just that the story gets too complicated and drags after the first 30 min. The last 10 are especially confusing
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Gordon-1117 March 2017This film tells the story of a successful writer, who is married to a beautiful wife. His wife is unfortunately intensely jealous, and their marriage is in jeopardy. When his wife is found dead, a detective relentlessly tries to prove that he is the murderer.
"A Kind of Murder" starts off engaging, as the wife is really beautiful. Jessica Biel's hairstyle is very elegant and elaborate, highlighting her status as a rich wife and successful designer. However, her attitude towards her husband is cold and unsupportive, making me feel very sorry for the husband. After the mysterious circumstances occurred, the story unfortunately goes downhill. The detective keeps on jumping to illogical and unsubstantiated conclusions, and his dedication towards the case is seriously misplaced. The involvement of the bookstore owner just doesn't make sense either. The ending creates confusion rather than suspense and thrill, which is a pity. -
JaneBingley22 May 2022So many seem to not get this. Its not real. We are watching a crime story written by Walter Stackhouse. We can see he is writing the story as the movie goes on. And the last thing he writes, in the very last scene, is The End.
His wife kills herself by jumping off a bridge. -
blanche-25 May 2017Patrick Wilson is a two-time Tony Award winner who bears, at certain angles, a resemblance to Paul Newman. He has enjoyed a very good career. But if he doesn't stay away from films like this, I fear for him.
"A Kind of Murder" takes place in 1960 and actually begins in a movie theater where "Butterfield 8" is being shown. A Chevrolet commercial can be heard from the screen; I'm not familiar enough with the film to say it took place in the movie, nor am I aware of commercials being shown in theaters, but I found it odd.
The story concerns two men, architect and some time writer Walter Stackhouse (Wilson) and a bookstore owner, Marty Kimmel (Eddie Marsan). Kimmel's wife is murdered and found near a tavern, and an aggressive cop, Laurence Corby (Vincent Kartheiser) is positive Kimmel is the killer. However, a young man has given him an alibi - he and Kimmel were both in the theater to see Butterfield 8 at the same time.
Then Walter's wife Clara (Jessica Biel), a beautiful but deeply disturbed and unhappy woman, winds up dead in the same location. Both women had taken the same bus, which stopped near the tavern. Walter, tired of Clara being neurotic, had told her he wanted a divorce. She threatened suicide, then left abruptly to be with her sick mother.
Detective Corby harasses both men mercilessly, and when he finds out that Stackhouse has clippings of the Kimmel murder as a resource for the writing he does on the side, he doubles up the harassment.
I'm not sure why this was set in 1960 except that it was based on a Patricia Highsmith novel probably written then. I wonder if the screenwriter (or Highsmith) realized that the Fourth Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1790 so that Corby could not have walked into Stackhouse's home and started going through his house without a warrant. And what idiots allow such harassment and never retain an attorney?
The film had some atmosphere but was slow and dull. It took forever to get to the plot. Now, modern screen writing demands this. I have no problem waiting for the point of the movie if the film is moving along. This one didn't.
Patricia Highsmith was a wonderful mystery writer, but she wasn't perfect. I haven't read her novel but somehow I feel it had to have been better than this. -
be-3616826 November 2022I do believe that the majority of people here missed the point of the movie. It's supposed to be slow and methodical, that's the point.
Our lives are so full of movies that 'Must!' keep you on the edge of your seat that a lot of them have forgotten, that's not what life is like.
Life is slow and cumbersome and confusing and sometimes surreal. Just like this movie.
Patrick's character is most excellent at portraying a husband that loves his wife, wants his wife, but is deeply troubled by her behavior and does not know what to do about it. Try he will, try he might... I liked the movie a lot but then again I'm a guy who collects vintage detective novels and reviews them on Youtube with a little bit of acting and reading. So perhaps I'm a tad biased, but maybe I'm just older and a lot of the persons reviewing here seem like they're in their 20's, by their grammar and vernacular.
Or maybe I'm wrong.
What I do love is how purposeful this movie is...it did not have a big budget but they did well with it, anyhow. And I think some here are missing that very thing...this wasn't ever meant to be a block buster.
And remember, the author of the book "The Blunderer" was Patricia Highsmith, which this movie is based upon. She also wrote "Strangers on a Train" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley", and "Some Kind of Murder" lands right in the middle of two. Which is exactly what I believe Patricia wanted.
It's a quiet, soft film noir like they'd film in the 40's or 50's, so yes; it does not reach out and grab your face and show you how much you should 'Like!' me! No...it's not slick like 'Ripley' and not subversive like 'Strangers'.
It's real...and that's how I like it. -
I feel this as neo-noir... while others compare to older noir. It's a bit understated, only 1-1/2 hour long... it could use the missing 1/2 hour to bring it home. It feels a little disjointed, slices stitched together with one backfilled infidelity. Nuances span the 60s decade perhaps... fedoras to numb/drug existence. 3/4 through the film, I got the feeling there should/could be a significant twist coming. The twist was... not solidly concluding the main story arc... perhaps ...a feeling of one of those 'leave it to the audience to decide' ...between simplistic wash or darkly.... what, isn't well hinted. Another half hour could provide more development in first 3/4 (such as for Clara, and lies) and for the last 1/4, a more definite convoluted author ending for the main character instead of a simple pained grin and a conflicting two-sentence write-out between wrong and guilt.
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cosmo_tiger25 February 2017"I'd say he did it. I've worked it out." After an unsolved murder rocks a small town, Walter Stackhouse (Wilson) becomes fascinated by it and starts to do his own investigation. He is also struggling in his marriage to Clara (Biel) and she is becoming suspicious of what he is doing in his free time. After Clara is found dead Walter becomes a suspect himself and his whole life begins to unravel. This is a movie that tried everything it could to be tense and noir-like, but it never quite got there. It was a little generic and for me it was just really a struggle to get into. The acting is OK but there was just something about this movie that didn't seem to click with me. There was enough twists to make it somewhat interesting, but really just hard to connect with. Overall, a movie that tried everything it could to be tense and almost DePalma like, but failed. I give this a C+.
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ranwulfs2 January 2022I don't know if these questions will be considered spoilers, but could anyone figure out who killed the architect/writer's wife, or is it a suicide? Does the architect die at the end? Is there a connection at all between the bookseller and the architect? Does Ellie - the architect/writer's mistress - have a bloody thing to do with the plot? Is the entire thing simply a story written by the architect/writer, as seems to be indicated in the film's last frame? Who's on first? What's on second? Third base!
"A Kind of Murder" is a very stylish neo-noir film in the style of Hitchcock, but utterly fails to resolve ongoing questions central to the plot (see above). It's as though a good 15 minutes is missing, the 15 minutes that would have explained WTF is going on. Perhaps the screenplay's final draft went missing, and they went with the rough instead. I don't know, but the narrative is short on coherence. This is definitely a case of style over substance, which is unfortunate, because the cast is quite good. The production design is on par with better films in my opinion, but the story lacks cohesion and anything resembling a satisfactory conclusion. I'd recommend skipping this, unless you enjoy being frustrated by films that leave you hanging, and could have been much better.
Two stars out of ten. Meh. -
dsdrp8 January 2017Expected more plot, action and/or suspenseful dialogue. Did not read the book and now I do not want to since movie dragged from very beginning. Script was slow and very predictable throughout. Wilson and Biel did a good job with the limited characters they portrayed. Marsan did a really good job playing the creepy guy that you really wanted to be guilty. Haley Bennett has some pipes on her. Detective character would have been much more believable using an older, more mature actor. Most entertaining parts of the movie were all the 60's things - the wardrobes, sets (particularly the Stackhouse residence), and the pervasive smoking. Having attained adulthood in the 60s I was impressed with the accuracy of all the design aspects. It was a good idea to set this movie during a snowy winter - helped some with attempt at film "noir" effects. Was worth rental fee just to see the clothes.
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jtindahouse14 February 2017I've become a real fan of Patrick Wilson in recent years. He's put his name to a lot of quality movies. Sadly, this is not of them. There was an idea that could have worked somewhere in the mix here, but it just got bogged down under an immensely boring story. The period the film is set in, the characters and the bland dialogue all do nothing more than put you to sleep.
The film does pick up the pace a touch in the final third, but by then it's too late. Most have already switched off and those that haven't no longer care. The mystery side of things is poorly conceived as well. Thing's that we are meant to be curious about we already know the answer to, and things that we might genuinely care to know are never answered.
'A Kind of Murder' is a very bleak experience that achieves nothing it sets out to. How a film with the word "murder" in the title can ever turn out quite so boring I'm not sure, but this one manages it. Nothing to see here, watch some of Wilson's other fantastic work from previous years instead. -
Promising cast, if not the Hollywood's greatest. Adapted to the screen from the book called 'The Blunderer'. The film is about the two separate deaths that's quite suspiciable of having some kind of a connection. That's where the cop's investigation comes into play. The narration was very suspense, since nothing was openly revealed at the beginning what really had happened, where the rest of the film rides on with.
There are many angles to have a guess, but mostly it hangs either one or the other way, where you could come close to unpuzzle. A rich couple's marriage is falling apart. While the wife is not taking it well as her husband does. He's already starting to look forward to have an affair and move on. That's when he comes across a news about an unsolved murder, and soon his state of life sees the same fate. Now hunted by the law, how he tries to prove he's not involved in any kind of wrongdoing. That leads to a twist before bringing a full stop to the storytelling.
I thought it was good, because it was different, engaging and mysterious, but not sure the presentation was at its best. It is what we call Hitchcock style mystery-thriller. If he'd been alive, I would have expected it to be from his direction. He knows that formula, how to carve such subject. This is from a television director and the quality of the film remained the same kind. Though the actors were good, as well as the atmosphere of the narration. It had a lot potential to be a better one, but still it can be watched once if you keep aside your complaints.
6/10 -
I have weighted the film on the lower side of 5 out of 10 for the abysmal ending. As with most movie buffs, we hate to get sucked into a somewhat film noir with plenty of mystery in the early going, only to have the film end rather abruptly without proper closure.
Patrick Wilson who plays Walter Stackhouse, an architect/storyteller/amateur detective is superb in his role. Kudos also to the wardrobe department for their excellent choice for their 1950's period dressage. I also liked the performances by Jessica Biel and Eddie Marsan.
I would try to explain my disappointment by likening it to the purchase of a double scoop of my favorite ice cream placed in a sugar cone only to have taken my first bite and find out the ice cream was sorbet and the sugar cone was actually cardboard. If you can picture that scenario, then that is what I felt I watched with "A Kind of Murder", more like "A Kind of a Let Down" -
asifahsankhan26 February 2017Andy Goddard's A Kind of Murder aspires to be a feminist detective thriller (adapted by screenwriter Susan Boyd from Patricia Highsmith's 1954 novel The Blunderer). But the film, set in 1960s New York, seems far more interested in its art design then in fully developing the story's underlying sexual ethics. Even the casting suggests that its producers hope to benefit from the nostalgia generated for that time and place by Mad Men: One of that show's principal actors, Vincent Kartheiser, plays the film's sleuth, Detective Lawrence Corby, who tries to unravel the mystery surrounding two women found dead at the same suburban bus station several weeks apart.
The film opens with the first murder, that of the wife of an unprepossessing bookstore owner, Mr. Kimmel (Eddie Marsan), whom Corby suspects of committing the crime. The murder also captures the attention of Walter Stackhouse (Patrick Wilson), a successful architect and amateur writer of detective mysteries. Stackhouse does some investigation of Kimmel on his own, and in the process implicates himself in the second murder. Stackhouse works in the city and lives in the suburbs with his paranoid and depressive wife, Clara (Jessica Biel). Sexually frustrated as a result of her various neuroses, Stackhouse meets a seductive young jazz singer, Ellie (Haley Bennett), thus setting into motion the film's nourish romantic subplot.
As I've mentioned beforehand, the film doesn't fully develop the story and it's underlying sexual ethics, rather it seems more interested in its art design.
The central murder mystery is handled without much aplomb or ingenuity. Corby is a clumsy dick, and his investigation plays out like a humourless parody of a detective film. Albeit exquisitely packaged, A Kind of Murder is mostly a paint-by-numbers genre piece that only flares into life when exploring issues of sin, guilt, and punishment in relation to masculine sexual urges. As in many film Noirs, murder here is explicitly linked to thwarted lust. The film takes the standard Christian condemnation of adultery that leads fornicators to the jailhouse or the grave in most Noirs and endows it with a feminist twist. The biblical exhortation against lusting after another woman becomes here a critique of male sexual license in America on the eve of the sexual revolution.
This appropriation of Christian morality for feminist ends is illustrated by Stackhouse's relationship with Ellie. She's the Eve to his Adam, tempting him away from his well-lighted, idyllic suburban home to a dimly lit underground jazz club in Greenwich Village. But the film emphasises her neutrality in this process, pointing out that it's Stackhouse's prerogative that sets the affair in motion. While Ellie is a willing participant in the drama, she's far from the sexually assertive she-devil that Clara makes her out to be. This emphasis on Stackhouse's culpability and refusal to judge Ellie captures America's evolving morality during that period, when Eisenhower-era family values were giving way to a greater emphasis on sexual liberation and gender equality.
The film's muted cinematography coincides with the ethical murkiness of Stackhouse's behaviour as he journeys from the paradise of sacred matrimony to the hell of infidelity. His symbolic castration by Clara causes him to stray in his heart before he does so with his body, and the film's denouement reveals this to be a tale of feminist revenge from beyond the grave masquerading as a Christian parable about the dangers of carnal desire outside of marriage. As Stackhouse sits in his firm's office beneath an abstract expressionist painting, perplexedly trying to rationalise his immoral behaviour to his business partner, the art's wild, swirling colours hint at the moral revolution soon to be unleashed upon the nation and the confusion it would sow in its wake. -
dcdcdc-0581510 March 2017No Spoilers It was interesting and got you involved,BUT, the last 10 minutes which is the ending was just so pathetic,so stupid and did not even make sense. I wasted all that time getting intrigued with it to have a silly ending. The acting was very good and the atmosphere was also good. The automobiles were classics.
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Thrillers made prior to circa 1970 often began with a "hook" of some kind, followed shortly thereafter by an unspeakable event. The story would only gradually unfold in which the viewer has no idea the who, the what, the how, the pieces of the puzzle only fitting into place at great effort. Think of the Maltese Falcon: a beautiful woman enters into the detective offices of Sam Spade and Miles Archer, claiming she's trying to find her sister who has been supposedly abducted. Shortly thereafter, Archer is murdered. In "A King of Murder", based on a story by the mystery-suspense writer Patricia Highsmith, famous for her Ripley novels, there's a similar form.
At the beginning of the film, we learn that the wife of a reclusive antiquarian bookseller, Marty Kimell (Eddie Marsan) has been murdered. We don't see the murder, but mainly hear about it through a newspaper clipping extracted from a newspaper by Walter Stackhouse, a prominent architect. The case is being investigated by Detective Lawrence Corby (Vincent Kartheiser of Mad Men fame). Then we're brought to the other story-line thread. Walter Stackhouse (Patrick Wilson) seems to have everything someone in the upper middle-class could desire: a beautiful home, a beautiful wife, and a promising career as an architect and a short story writer. Except, his relationship with his wife, Clara (Jessica Biel), is on the rocks because of a dwindled sex life. At one of their lavish parties Stackhouse meets Elli, and he triangulates to fulfill his sexual needs. He also visits the bookshop owned by the husband of the murdered woman.
Clara's impotence worsens and so does her psychological instability. At the same time, the case of the murdered woman seems to be going nowhere. Eventually, Clara's mother is reported to be dying, and Clara leaves on a bus to go to her bedside. Stackhouse follows her but then returns home. Later, we learn Clara never arrived at her mother's. She was found dead under a bridge about half-way between her home and her mother's. Was it suicide or murder? Stackhouse is questioned by Corby who starts to believe there may be a link between Stackhouse, his dead wife, and the other murdered woman. When questioned about whether he knew about the other case, Stackhouse lies and says he's never heard of it, and claims he has never met the widower. Corby begins to question Stackhouse's claims. Will he be caught in his lies and therefore become a prime suspect in the death of his wife?
A thoroughly enjoyable and biting suspense-thriller which has its roots in many of the noir films directed by Howard Hawks and John Huston. A positive reviewer quote states that the film would have made Hitchcock proud, but this is much more of a throw-back to adaptions of novels by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. "A Kind of Murder" is very gritty, similar to the "b-films" of Old Hollywood, such as "The Maltese Falcon", "Laura", and "The Big Sleep". And the climactic ending is not what you would expect from most of these kinds of films today. -
kosmasp8 June 2017I haven't read the source material nor seen a movie this is supposedly a version of (according to IMDb). So I can only speak for this movie on display right here. The fine acting is one thing, but what really got me was the script. It is ambiguous and very woven to say the least. Predicting things may seem easy, but in the end, maybe it isn't? And that's something I really enjoyed during watching.
Having said that, there are a few things that seem easy to spot. It's a murder mystery, there are seemingly over the top characters involved and some sketchy themes running through it all. The final shot is mesmerizing to say the least and makes the mind wander ... and wonder too! -
gbbonkers27 January 2018Eddie Marsan is great, as always. Jessica Biel is miscast. Storyline is disjointed and far fetched. I would say this is 1958 or 1959 - not the 60's as stated in the synopsis. Patrick Wilson tries hard to make it all believable but it's not enough to carry the film.
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v-ley28 March 2017It could have been a really great movie but it just lets you down over and over again. I get the whole 60's era, rainy/snowy nights but it's all about the scenery and nothing about the characters. I never understood the bullying behavior of the Detective, the "illness" of the wife or what exactly the Husband did. Was he a Writer or an Architect? Too many unanswered questions and not enough acting, but you get plenty of night-time scenery. I guess my biggest disappointment is the Damn plot or story line, I'm still confused.