"Double Face" is the third, and presumably final, adaptation of a crime/thriller novel by the Belgian author Jef Geeraerts and revolving around the Antwerp police duo - and best buddies - Vincke and Verstuyft. The first one, "De Zaak Alzheimer" (aka "Memory of a Killer") got released in 2003 and was quite an international success, thanks to the surefooted direction of Erik Van Looy and the reasonably simple fact that people weren't used to seeing such type of violent and spectacular thrillers coming from Flanders. The follow-up in 2009, "Dossier K.", was already a lot less popular even though very exhilarating as well, and the replacement director Jan Verheyen also being a skilled professional. The release and reception of this "Double Face" went largely unnoticed in 2017, and the film itself barely surpasses the level of mediocrity as well.
I read a few books by Jef Geeraerts when I was younger, including "Double Face", and they feature a lot of perverse sex and extreme violence. This film also isn't for overly sensitive viewers, I'd say, as my wife suffered from some nightmares about human heads on poles and nasty car crashes. You can either take that as a warning, or as a recommendation! In a meadow near Antwerp, the headless and naked corpses of six woman are discovered, and another girl is narrowly rescued when she's found wandering half-naked, drugged, and very confused in a little village 20 kilometers further. Chief commissioner Vincke doesn't think the cases are related, but his impulsive assistant Verstuyft is convinced the girl was meant to become the killer's next victim if he hadn't been interrupted. While Vincke seeks the help of a Dutch and acclaimed Interpol profiler to find out more about the serial killer, Verstuyft digs into the life of the girl and - of course - falls madly in love with her.
Although director Jan Verheyen and scriptwriter Carl Joos try very hard to constantly mislead the audiences with red herrings, false leads and new clues, the film has severe difficulties to keep the audience alert and interested. There's a list of reasons for this. The plot features too many dreadful clichés, for starters. The impulsive and unorthodox cop rebels against the profiling methods, the cop sleeps with an important witness in the case, the friendship between the life-long partners is pressurized, etc. The best actors, including Belgium's finest Koen De Bouw, are also reduced to supportive characters. Commissioner Vincke's role barely exists of more than blindly following what the Interpol profile suggests and unsuccessfully forcing his buddy Verstuyft to obey. The rest of the police team, all good actors and actresses, are just glorified extras. The (eventual) climax is unpredictable, I'll admit that, but also very unsatisfying. Call me crazy, but I still think that every killer - even deranged serial killers - need to have some sort of motive or plausible background story, especially the extreme ones that chop off heads and store them in freezers. Here, there isn't any sort of clarification whatsoever.
