Director: Anthony Byrne
Writer: Anthony Byrne, Natalie Dormer (Screenplay)
Starring: Natalie Dormer, Emily Ratajkowski, Ed Skrein, James Cosmo, Joely Richardson, Neil Maskell
Plot: A blind musician hears a murder committed in the apartment upstairs from hers that sends her down a dark path into London’s gritty criminal underworld.
Tagline – Fear Blinds the Truth
Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Overly Complicated Thriller
Story: In Darkness starts blind pianist Sofia (Dormer) starts getting worried about her neighbor Veronique (Ratajkowski) who eventually gets murdered by Marc (Skrein) who sees that Sofia on the night he commits the murder, worried she could expose him, he starts to get close to her learning that she is blind and that she isn’t a threat.
Sofia does have her own secret though which dives into a much bigger conspiracy as to what is going on within the main suspects, will the truth come out or not.
Thoughts on In Darkness
Characters – Sofia is a blind pianist that makes the best of the surrounding sounds which is why she is so respected in the music industry, she hears the murder of her upstairs neighbor which leads her down a spiral of conspiracies which she is just as involved in. Veronique is the upstairs neighbor that has been worried about her life, she does stay honest with Sofia though, until she gets murdered, which sees her connection to everyone being the key to everything. Marc is the man that is sent to kill Veronique, he needs to tie up the loose ends which sees him starting to target Sofia until he learns her position in everything. Niall is the connection that Sofia has to her past, he will help where he can always willing to help her.
Performances – Natalie Dormer does a great job in when it comes to the blind side of her character, it is when it comes to certain other sides, things start to show the weaker side of her performance. Emily Ratajkowski struggles like she always does in acting, while Ed Skrein and James Cosmo do as well as they can with their roles in the film.
Story – The story here follows a blind woman that hears a murder only to find herself in the middle of a bigger conspiracy going on with the people involved in connection with the victim. The story plays out like a thriller that wants to be bigger than it actually is capable of being, trying to through in a twist in nearly every scene which just seems to make it out that the people involved here are a lot more trained and skilled than they are portrayed for the opening parts of the film. if we had just played most of this straight, we might have gotten away with certain twists along the way, but in the end we just try to over complicate for the sake of it.
Mystery – The mystery in the film seems like it gets revealed early on, it is more why it happened, which does try to keep us guessing only to keep throwing more twists in along the way.
Settings – The film is set in London, which barely gets used to make an impact in the locations used.
Scene of the Movie – The funeral.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Too many twists in the story.
Final Thoughts – This is a mystery thriller that just makes things more complicated than it needs to be, this format would have played out better in a television series over a film.
Overall: Here is a twist, there is a twist, everywhere there is a twist.
Rating
