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Most professional critics described this film as belonging to the torture porn sub-genre, and admittedly the killer in W DELTA Z – pausing before hammering a jagged two inch nail underneath a bound victim's fingernail - declares "There will be pain", echoing Jigsaw's promise of "There will be blood" in SAW II. But W DELTA Z owes a much bigger debt to such cerebral serial killer thrillers as SE7EN and Russell Mulcahy's RESURRECTION.
Although set in New York, W DELTA Z is actually a British movie, partly financed by National Lottery funding, and - apart from a few scenes featuring the Manhattan skyline that were shot on location - it was filmed in Belfast, convincingly standing-in for the Big Apple. New York is portrayed here as an unrelentingly bleak urban hell of filth-covered alleyways, stinking and muck encrusted crack houses, and blood-smeared stairwells. When bodies start turning up in pairs – one electrocuted, the other tortured – the case is handed to grizzled, jaded, ultra-cynical veteran detective Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgard) and his newly-acquired rookie partner Helen Westcott (Melissa George). They eventually discover the symbols craved into the victims' flesh relate to The Price Equation, which argues that altruism and selflessness do not exist as part of animal or human nature. Westcott eventually realises that the killings are linked to an infamous rape/murder case from several years earlier, and the perpetrator is someone whom Argo betrayed in the worst way possible.
Skarsgard is a terrific actor whom Hollywood usually casts as either a villain or in supporting roles, so it's great to see him headline a movie. He takes full advantage, fully inhabiting the role of Eddie Argo. George struggles to flesh out her extremely underwritten and non-descript character, and is only partly successful. Other noticeable faces amongst the cast are rising British actress Sally Hawkins (as a crack addicted single mother, turning tricks in front of her infant son) and CAPE WRATH's Tom Hardy. And although it's Skarsgard's film, Selma Blair tucks all her scenes under her arm and walks off with them, in a small but pivotal role.
The momentium established in the early scenes isn't sustained throughout the movie's entire running time, and the narrative does sag slightly at the midway point. And the scene in which we first see the killer is curiously underpowered. The killer's second appearance - unexpectedly and cleverly abducting a victim in the middle of the street, in front of unsuspecting bystanders - would have made a more effective introduction. But otherwise I enjoyed W DELTA Z immensely.
score 8/10
misbegotten 7 April 2008
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1853674/ |
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1-3-2021 03:51:06