I'm so mixed on this film. I went in with high expectations. And the first hour is engaging. Well paced. The mystery competently set up. Stylish cinematography. Dark, forbidding vibe. But at the end, I found it to be a missed opportunity.
The crime: a young, attractive real estate agent, Matilda Lutz as Summer Elswick is brutally murdered at a home she is showing. It is clearly a crime of passion. Over thirty stab wounds, and a knife embedded in her pelvic bone.
Her boyfriend, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake) a successful colleague, is the first suspect. Summer failed to show up for one of his talks, and he becomes quite angry. He was to meet Summer at the listing.
Suspect #2 is a sleazy, slightly "off" ex-husband Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman). His art projects are downright creepy. Number three is Eli Philipps (Michael Pitt) who appears a few nights later at Will's mom's home as a threatening, perhaps mentally disturbed young man bent on avenging a decades old real estate deal brokered by Will's dad. He feels cheated out of a family farm. He looks like a messier, bad-hair-day Russell Brand.
But then it all crashes at hour two. The plot becomes cluttered and unfocused as we wade into the suspicious doings at the small city police department, and procedural stuff. Too many ancillary characters wander in and out of the story. Subplots are dropped. Plot holes emerge. A ridiculous mistake by one of the bad guys reveals too much too soon. And it is all way too slow. A traffic stop takes an eternity and nothing much happens. There are several scenes of cars lazily cruising through scenic country sides, a cliche I often see in Nordic noirs. This thanks to cheap drones, I suspect.
On the positive side, Benico del Toro is great as the enigmatic detective Tom Nichols. He keeps the interest level up as viewers trudge through the messy narrative. He's perfect for a procedural. Low key. Poker faced. And unlike so many TV detectives, his character is free of major vices and a bad / failed marriage. Detective Nichols' only temptations: a better kitchen (and a motion activated faucet, a running joke here) and a top of the line used pickup truck. A not-at-all developed sub-plot shows him to be a jealous husband as well.
Alice Silverstone plays his wife, who is sort of an "assistant detective" helping him piece together a few clues. She is refreshing, a real change from the usual victimized, put-upon police wives we so often see.
I actually found Justin Timberlake's Will convincing as a sort of dodgy, narcissistic rich-kid real estate agent / motivational speaker. There's family money here and a strong mother (Francis Fisher) who heads the real estate business. If this were a series that dynamic would be ripe for exploring further.
In fact, Reptile, with all its subplots and supporting cast, would have been better as a six-part series. Or, a more skillfully edited, slimmed down 90-minute film. Both, though, would need a better title. "Foreclosure" maybe? "Do We have a Deal?" "Great Bones."
The crime: a young, attractive real estate agent, Matilda Lutz as Summer Elswick is brutally murdered at a home she is showing. It is clearly a crime of passion. Over thirty stab wounds, and a knife embedded in her pelvic bone.
Her boyfriend, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake) a successful colleague, is the first suspect. Summer failed to show up for one of his talks, and he becomes quite angry. He was to meet Summer at the listing.
Suspect #2 is a sleazy, slightly "off" ex-husband Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman). His art projects are downright creepy. Number three is Eli Philipps (Michael Pitt) who appears a few nights later at Will's mom's home as a threatening, perhaps mentally disturbed young man bent on avenging a decades old real estate deal brokered by Will's dad. He feels cheated out of a family farm. He looks like a messier, bad-hair-day Russell Brand.
But then it all crashes at hour two. The plot becomes cluttered and unfocused as we wade into the suspicious doings at the small city police department, and procedural stuff. Too many ancillary characters wander in and out of the story. Subplots are dropped. Plot holes emerge. A ridiculous mistake by one of the bad guys reveals too much too soon. And it is all way too slow. A traffic stop takes an eternity and nothing much happens. There are several scenes of cars lazily cruising through scenic country sides, a cliche I often see in Nordic noirs. This thanks to cheap drones, I suspect.
On the positive side, Benico del Toro is great as the enigmatic detective Tom Nichols. He keeps the interest level up as viewers trudge through the messy narrative. He's perfect for a procedural. Low key. Poker faced. And unlike so many TV detectives, his character is free of major vices and a bad / failed marriage. Detective Nichols' only temptations: a better kitchen (and a motion activated faucet, a running joke here) and a top of the line used pickup truck. A not-at-all developed sub-plot shows him to be a jealous husband as well.
Alice Silverstone plays his wife, who is sort of an "assistant detective" helping him piece together a few clues. She is refreshing, a real change from the usual victimized, put-upon police wives we so often see.
I actually found Justin Timberlake's Will convincing as a sort of dodgy, narcissistic rich-kid real estate agent / motivational speaker. There's family money here and a strong mother (Francis Fisher) who heads the real estate business. If this were a series that dynamic would be ripe for exploring further.
In fact, Reptile, with all its subplots and supporting cast, would have been better as a six-part series. Or, a more skillfully edited, slimmed down 90-minute film. Both, though, would need a better title. "Foreclosure" maybe? "Do We have a Deal?" "Great Bones."