No, Not That Orifice

Thora Birch and Keira Knightley take their dates to an old bomb shelter. Horrific tragedy results in 2001's The Hole. It's a good premise and both Birch and Knightley are good in it but by the second half of the film the story sinks beneath the weight of lousy direction and weak writing.

Birch plays Liz, a student at a prominent British boarding school. Birch puts on an English accent and keeps it about 75% of the time. Liz is in love with an American student named Mike (Desmond Harrington). She and her simp friend, Martin (Daniel Brocklebank), seize the opportunity when Mike temporarily breaks up with his girlfriend to get Mike, Liz, Frankie (Knightley), and Geoff (Laurence Fox) locked up in the old shelter.

Much of the story is told in flashback as a traumatised Liz speaks of the experience to a police therapist (Embeth Davidtz). Blame for the fact that the kids were locked in the shelter is put on Martin.

The cinematography makes the film look cheap and made for television. It's especially ludicrous when Frankie complains about how terrible the absolute darkness is and meanwhile the place is lit like a department store.

Even if they didn't want to go the route of realism, there are better ways to suggest absolute darkness without showing it. A more general, hazy light maybe or just one or two flashlight beams.

Of course, there's more to the story than Liz is letting on and the truth turns out to be a real tragedy. Unfortunately, someone working on the film decided Liz needed to do an exposition dump in the climax like a Bond villain, dashing any hope at an effectively tragic tale. Oh, well.

Serial Killer Movie

Someone strangles several women in Boston, earning him the name of "Boston Strangler" in 2023's Boston Strangler. Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon star as the two reporters who broke this real life story of serial murders. It's a decent enough procedural with little to distinguish it other than the fact that it's never annoying. Knightley and Coon both give good performances.

Loretta (Knightley) is stuck in the lifestyles section of her paper but she really wants to report on murder. She gets her big chance when a number of women turn up dead with silk stockings tied around their throats.

She partners with the more experienced Jean (Carrie Coon) and soon she's learning the ropes, dealing with cops and coroners, landlords and relatives of victims. Sometimes Loretta feels a little too modern, as in one scene where she doesn't flinch when a landlord tells her one victim had a broomstick shoved up her vagina, and he doesn't seem surprised that she doesn't flinch.

I watched the movie because Paul Schrader recommended the movie on his Facebook but he complained about the "immaculate period cars". I'd say that problem of artificial cleanliness extends to the sets, costumes, hair, and makeup, too.

I was a little distracted by the presence of David Dastmalchian. I'm unable to see him as anyone but Polka Dot Man now.

Boston Strangler is available on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ in other countries.

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