This week I watched a solid and upsetting thriller from the Netherlands (though a lot of it is set in France). It’s an uncomfortable reminder of how matter of fact some people can be about the horrible acts they commit, as well as about what others are willing to risk to learn the truth. I always make it a point to not reveal the ending, but this is a case where I highly encourage you not to look it up before you watch. It’s much more effective if you go into it blind. Anyway, I’ll give you an idea of the plot.
At first, we follow Rex and Saskia, a couple vacationing in France. While on the road, Saskia relates a recurring dream she’s been having to Rex. She describes it as her being trapped in a golden egg and drifting through space, with the most recent dream involving her egg colliding with someone else’s. Rex doesn’t put much credence in this vision, and even leaves Saskia in a dark tunnel when their car runs out of gas. While the point of him leaving was to fill up their portable gas can, Saskia is afraid of the dark and ends up running out of the tunnel, which has pretty frequent traffic on it, into the light at the end. Rex apologizes for what he did and promises to never abandon her again. When they reach a gas station, Saskia goes into the store to get a few things. However, to Rex’s increasing panic, she never comes back. Rex freaks out and desperately tries to find her, but to no avail. We then switch perspectives to a different character: Raymond, a science professor with a wife and daughters who seems to be a somewhat charming fellow at first. However, he seems to be planning something that involves chloroform, so you can probably guess where this is going. Sure enough, when he goes out to a local gas station one day to search for a victim, he happens upon a familiar young lady who’s vacationing with her boyfriend. Cut to three years later, and Rex has never given up looking for Saskia. It’s to the point where it’s basically become an obsession and he’s sinking more and more of his life into this search. His current girlfriend, Lieneke, tries to support him, but is clearly concerned and rather fed-up with Rex’s current state. At this point, he doesn’t even want revenge or justice on the man who took her, he just wants to meet him and learn what he did to Saskia. Raymond, by comparison, is living rather comfortably and even enjoys toying with Rex, sending him letters to meet him at a café near his apartment but never showing up, and instead just watching Rex from his balcony. After Rex goes on television to talk about his crusade and makes a formal appeal to the killer if they happen to be watching, Raymond decides it’s time for the two of them to finally meet. What will come from their fated meeting? What did Raymond do to Saskia? You’ll have to watch the film to find out. For now, I’ll talk about my feelings on the film.
I do have to admit that this isn’t the sort of thriller that has you regularly on-edge. There’s a good amount of down time in between the tense bits where we’re focusing more on the human drama, and just the current lives of the main characters in general. For the story that they’re trying to tell, I think this approach works well. It isn’t really a mystery/detective sort of thing where the clues build on each other as the story unfolds, or one in which we have to find out who did it. We know the culprit pretty early on, and while we don’t know what happened to Saskia until the end, the goal isn’t putting pieces together until it makes sense. This is really just as much of a drama film as it is a thriller, with more focus on what the characters are going through, or just who they are as people. It’s interesting that they chose to have the kidnapper be the second protagonist, seeing a good chunk of the film from his perspective. I always feel that, when done well, putting us in the shoes of an insane killer can be very unsettling and challenge you to understand why they do what they do (of course, the danger with that can be that the audience might identify too much with the killer, so there’s definitely a tricky balancing act when you go that route). Raymond is a classic example of a sociopath (which he even self-identifies as): able to come across as a sociable and charismatic person on the surface, but also able to hide a cruel, unempathetic, and murderous nature within. He treats the whole situation so matter-of-factly, as if doing what he did to Saskia meant very little and was just a way for him to test his own personal limits. It’s sad to think that there very much are people like him out in the world, and many of them are able to lead great and wonderful lives, even if they’ve done horrible yet carefully hidden things. It’s even sadder to think that there are many people that would still support folks like that, even if their terrible deeds went public (how many women have professed to having a crush on Ted Bundy, even after all the horrid things he did?). For most people, though, I’d like to think it arouses the justice section of their brains, like it did mine. You want to see people like Raymond get punished for their actions, but you also know that in some cases they never will. It didn’t help that Rex had fallen so far into obsession with Saskia and her disappearance that he was willing to put his own life on the line, not to bring Raymond in, but just to ask him what he did to her. It kind of makes it so you can’t really root for anyone, since Raymond is a selfish and psychotic murderer, while Rex is, though sympathetic, completely lost and unreasonable at this point. Honestly, you’d probably end up on Lieneke’s side, wanting him to just give up this unhealthy mindset and try to move on with his life, but you also know that he just can’t/won’t. Still, though, even with two unhealthy protagonists, that sense of sympathy for Rex and a morbid fascination with Raymond manages to keep you going throughout the film, which is commendable. In general, I found this film to be well done overall, with good acting and a solid atmosphere that feels realistic but just a little off, perfect for an uneasy story like this. I will say that the music did at times feel a little too 80’s for its own good (something about the tone of the synth felt like it could get borderline cheeseball), but for the most part, it still managed to work. I really wish I could talk about the ending, but I also really don’t want to spoil it for you. I will say, though, that it definitely got to both me and the folks I was watching this with, so I hope it doesn’t give you nightmares after you watch it. That’s about all I have to say on this film, so I’ll move on to my final thoughts.
Overall, this was a well-made thriller-drama, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. If you don’t go into it expecting a constant state of thrilling tension, then I think you’ll end up appreciating it too. I’ve been made aware that the director ended up making an American remake of this film a few years later, and I’ve also been made aware that it’s pretty bad. I’m just going to go ahead and dissuade you from watching that version, or at least not until you’ve seen the original. I know enough about Hollywood foreign remakes (and remakes in general) to know that it’s probably not worth seeking out. Anyway, American remake notwithstanding, the original Dutch film is a very well-done film and I definitely recommend you go check it out. You won’t be disappointed, since much like the thing in Saskia’s dream, it’s definitely a golden egg.