Complicity

We were rather suspicious of this movie when we first sat down to watch it. My husband and I had both read the book and liked it very much, and since we hadn't heard of the adaptation before we suspected that it probably wouldn't be much good.

Boy, were we ever wrong.

The movie is slightly too gory at times for my personal taste, but then, so is the book. And it's hard not to be, in a story about the hunt for a mad but incredibly clever serial killer. The setting is just right, and the casting as well, and the story unfolds at a pace that just allows you to understand what's going on before the next twist to the plot.

Very highly recommended.

A film based on the Iain Banks novel with the same name. As a major Iain Banks fan I decided to read the book before I watched the film, I'm sure glad I did. The book is very good (like all Banks's novels), unnerving, exciting and very well written. However, in the film the director have managed to exclude the good things about the book, resulting in a depressing, unthrilling thriller without bite. Only watch this if you're bored, actually don't, read the book instead!

No idea how I missed this 24 years ago with most of the best acting talent that Scotland has to offer.

The set up is pretty good, but the longer the movie goes on the worse it gets.

There are several problems. The movie is not cinematic at all. It feels like a TV movie or part of TV series. Johnny Lee Millar is badly cast. In the first half he is a drinker, a drug taker and lots of kinky sex with Keeley Hawes as well as being a ballsy journalist. In the second half he becomes stupid, a cry baby and preaches about the dangers of drugs?

The biggest issue is how stupid he is not figure out how that he is being setup.

Simply unbelievable and badly acted.

In Japan, this film is given the title Psycho 2001. The cover of the DVD shows a writhing figure in a bloody bathtub, apparently boiling in a stew of guts and organs after ritual disembowelment.

No such scene exists in the film. This title and cover seem to be one more chapter in the harsh treatment this film has suffered at the hands of distributors.

And it is undeserved treatment. This is a classy thriller, Johnny Lee Millar giving his trademark performance in moral ambiguity as a clapped-out journalist looking to break a huge scoop on government conspiracy. As he digs deeper, he finds the story becoming less about the wicked ways of the world, and more about the murky secrets of his own past.

The Highland locations are well used in sweeping helicopter shots, the pacing swift as journo Cameron moves through a sea of bodies, a mysterious Deep Throat figure keeping him one step behind the bad guy(s). Brian Cox is as solid as ever, rehearsing his bad-ass law enforcer routine before Bourne. Millar stands up to a demanding role, especially in the final third when all his chickens come home to roost, and regret, anguish, atonement, cynicism and hope are all required to be shown.

Complicity appears to have been overlooked by most theatres, distributors, award-givers and reviewers. A shame really, much worse British films have travelled abroad in recent years. Complicity is fraught, character-driven, quirky, kinky and pays off at the end. Well worth checking out.

sometimes, a film can suffer greatly from just one drawback, even if everything else is top notch. unfortunately, this is the case here.

this film, based on iain banks' novel, is an impressive production, with excellent actors, breathtaking scottish settings, believable and very enjoyable character quirks, truly shocking murders, suspense and even some steamy sex.

however, "complicity" doesn't quite succeed, and i can only trace it back to one thing: it's much too compressed. i haven't read the original novel, but it's obvious a great deal of it made it to the screen; unfortunately, the film's 93 minute running time just doesn't suffice for this epic tale: cameron colley's journalistic investigation into several seemingly unrelated murders, egged on by a mysterious anonymous source, which causes him to clash with his disapproving bosses; his relationships with his old friends, and the many secrets they share; his affair with yvonne; the various grisly murders as seen by the killer; flashbacks to cameron's childhood and teenage years; and the psychologically jarring moments after cameron becomes the police's prime suspect.

of course, this film offers many funny, thrilling, surprising and shocking moments, but they're all a bit rushed. a longer format would have benefitted this film greatly. banks' exceedingly clever and profound story manages to come over very well, but the film is so densely packed that i'd recommend you take small breaks so as to take everything in; make a cup of coffee or something and come back, as you would to a good novel (of course you could go straight to the source, but me, i'd rather watch the movie.)

the fabulous bbc production of banks' "the crow road" shows the extent to which a longer format is more suitable to his multifaceted stories.