BEFORE: Eddie Redmayne carries over from "Fantastic Beasts", and I've had this film down near the bottom of my list for a long while. It wasn't really part of the "unlinkables" section because it does link through Toni Collette to two other films, however I can't really go to either of those from here, because they're not on theme for January (one is "Krampus") or present me with a dead end ("In Her Shoes"). So I'll have to separate this one from those two, follow a different link out of this one, and hope that this doesn't create a linking problem later on.
I could have followed another very obvious link out of "Fantastic Beasts" to "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales", but then I'd have no way to get back on track to the rest of January's list, and no definite path to February 1. (Actually, this is not true, I could link via Keira Knightley to "Atonement", so I really just don't want to re-organize the rest of January's films.) This is the second time I'm avoiding connecting to "Pirates", but I think I can get to it somehow later this year. If no other way presents itself, there's always "Fantastic Beasts 2", which is due in November. "Dead Men Tell No Tales" has a huge cast list, so there's bound to be another way to get there.
Either way, I'd rather clear something off the list that's been on it for a while, I should have plenty of time to get to a big 2017 film that's just debuting on streaming platforms now. And taking something off the list makes room for a new film, but watching a film that hasn't been added to the watchlist does not.
THE PLOT: A forensic psychologist is tasked with determining whether or not a minor should face murder charges for killing his schoolmate.
AFTER: First off, this is a film with two titles. It ran on HBO as "Murderous Intent", but the IMDB lists it as "Like Minds" - I remember that I couldn't find it at first in the IMDB when I was adding it to my watchlist. It seems like "Like Minds" was the original title, but I guess that didn't sound "dangerous" enough when it was released on DVD in 2007. But there are at least two other films with the title "Murderous Intent" listed in the IMDB, so to avoid confusion there, I guess it goes by the original Australian name? Anyway, it's really best to pick one name and stick with it, if you want your film to stand out. It's one thing to have a bad title, but it's a real recognition killer to be all indecisive about it.
This is the first film of 2018 to be accused of excessive flashbackery - because when the film starts, the main character, Alex Forbes, is already in police custody, accused of murder, and we have to wait for the lead detective and police psychologist to question him so that we can see the entire story unfold via flashback. Thank God at least their questions start at the beginning and move in only one direction forward until the story catches up with the present. So we soon find out that Alex couldn't stand his prep-school roommate, and even though Alex's father was his headmaster, the fact that his roommate was dissecting small animals at odd hours didn't change his father's advice to buck up and learn to get along with this possible sociopath. But eventually the roommate, Nigel, is no longer among the living, so it seems pretty straightforward that Alex must have killed him. But is it?
If Alex's account is to be believed, then of course there's more to the story. But how reliable is the account if the narrator himself is the suspect? (He's a ginger, after all, and they have no souls...) If Alex is telling the truth, then Nigel was the villain here, committing all sorts of illicit acts, and finding ways to make Alex appear complicit. But again, this is coming from Alex himself, so how can they ever know for sure?
There's a lot of stuff about the Cathars and the Knights Templar that seems quite out of place, and you have to wonder if all that is here just to muddy the waters even more. And the audience is already being asked to do a number of mental gymnastics to understand the plot if Alex is telling the truth, and an even larger set of said gymnastics if he's not. Then to not even acknowledge the possibility that there might be something romantic going on between the two boys, like a love/hate relationship, that feels a bit like a misstep.
Also starring Toni Collette (last heard in "The Boxtrolls"), Tom Sturridge (last seen in "Vanity Fair"), Richard Roxburgh (last seen in "Moulin Rouge!"), Kate Maberly (last seen in "Finding Neverland"), Jon Overton, Amit Shah, Patrick Malahide, David Threlfall, Cathryn Bradshaw, Henry Hereford.
RATING: 6 out of 10 fingerprints
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