Double Negative

I caught this under the meaningless title DEADLY COMPANION on Amazon Prime, although DOUBLE NEGATIVE, the original title, is slightly better. It's a subdued and cold Canadian thriller co-written by three writers, all of whom seem to have very different ideas about what sort of film they're making. Thus it begins with Michael Sarrazin playing a kind of wronged-man lead trying to find out who killed his wife, and ends up as a suspense thriller that focusses on a supporting flamboyant hitman character as played by Anthony Perkins. The story is utterly confusing and the cast, although decent, fail to make much headway with the script. The most fun I had was spotting early appearances from future greats including Catherine O'Hara, John Candy, and Michael Ironside.

With a cast like this, I expected great things but Double Negative is a disappointment at best and a lousy thriller at worst. The film simply does not make sense even after seeing it twice. It's about a writer (Michael Sarrazin) trying to figure out the facts behind the death of his wife. Susan Clark plays his lover and Anthiony Perkins plays a mysterious man who connects the two of them. Actually, Perkins is probably the most interesting part of the film, which is not a difficult task. Some SCTV faces pop up for about a split second and the finale fails to clear up several questions. Double Negative has some great shots of Toronto in winter.

On paper it sounds great, with Anthony Perkins as a baddie involved in an unsolved murder, but drifts aimlessly most of the time.

Perkins is great though, easily the best thing about this movie. There are a few attempts to recreate Hitchcockian camera angles involving Perkins that I liked.

Apparently the SCTV studios doubled as the casting offices for this movie, the following all have tiny roles: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty.

This murder/mystery makes little sense. Its a pity that an actor of Perkin's caliber got stuck in roles like this. Note John Candy's short appearence early on. I say go see it, if you don't fall asleep before it ends, then at least you can say you saw it!

Michael Sarrazin is the journalist who can't remember anything about the night he found his wife raped and murdered on their bed; Susan Clark is his devoted girlfriend, who tries to help him piece the events together. Sounds good, but actually it's a muddled, visually unattractive thriller, with a predictable resolution. Anthony Perkins is fairly amusing as a kinky blackmailer. (*1/2)