Tradimento fatale

An amazing, subtle, and well-balanced film, naturally overlooked by audience seeking low-level entertainment. Great, intelligent screenplay, an accomplished directorial style, well shot and beautifully acted -- James McManus in a role of convention-twisting private detective is nothing short of fenomenal. "Big Empty" is a complete package.

The joy about going to the library and getting DVD's is that you never know WHAT you're going to get. This week, I picked up a DVD called 'The Big Empty', a movie which I've never heard of before (and apparently not so many other people). I was pretty much hooked from scene one and James Mcmanus's droll droll acting (and oh yes, his hair). This is sort of a neo film noir about grocery clerk-turned-Private Dick who gets way over his head over a simple infidelity case. The ridiculousness of how stupid Mcmanus's character gets, I won't spoil for you here, but lets just say he clearly loves his job.. Or maybe doesn't know it at all. Full of odd little flourishes, this is a movie you'll need to try hard to find, but has a lot of little prizes to discover.

This movie is totally brilliant. Every aspect of a classic film noir is in it, humor, drama, strong characters. This movie makes you think, about yourself, about life and loneliness. If you are not open (like me the first time I watched this) you won't like this movie. If you want to see action, you won't like this movie. Although this is a low budget movie the acting is brilliant and the camera work is very refreshing, especially the car scenes!. This little gem needs a lot of attention but will give you the real film noir feeling!. But of course only when you are looking for the film noir feeling. This is a movie for fans of the genre, they will understand what this movie wants to tell and why this movie is refreshing and uses the film-noir formula in a whole different way!.

9 out of 10

This is a movie that tries to be cliched. That's a little weird because most if not all movies try to be different. A lot don't get to be, but they try, and would certainly like to be. Not this one. Why would a movie want to be just like the same thing we've seen a hundred times before? To prove that it can be done better. Nicer shots, cooler characters, better scenery, and a stranger mystery. The Big Empty succeeds on some of these grounds. The shots are terrific and so is the scenery. But the rest of it is bizarre. The main character is a tiresome, beat up kind of guy and yet he's young. He never smiles and probably doesn't know the meaning of fun. The case he gets involved in starts out just like the classic cases of movies like Chinatown and then gets really weird. I think the point of this movie was to take classic formulas and see if they could vary them to such a degree that we would never expect it. The detective is usually a cool, tough talking, never smiling, experienced guy. Here he's tough talking and never smiling, but he is far from cool and completely inexperienced. So it's sort of a spoof on detective stories. A black comedy. On the grounds that it is creative it works. But the story is certainly not that good and overall it is just okay.

I feel I learned something from this movie. It is a unique, evocative investigation of intimacy, throwing light on the dark side of human nature. MacManus and Goldwasser conjure up compelling original characters, but the relationship they bring to life is the haunting portrait one is left with.