Uma Forma de Assassinato

I've become a real fan of Patrick Wilson in recent years. He's put his name to a lot of quality movies. Sadly, this is not of them. There was an idea that could have worked somewhere in the mix here, but it just got bogged down under an immensely boring story. The period the film is set in, the characters and the bland dialogue all do nothing more than put you to sleep.

The film does pick up the pace a touch in the final third, but by then it's too late. Most have already switched off and those that haven't no longer care. The mystery side of things is poorly conceived as well. Thing's that we are meant to be curious about we already know the answer to, and things that we might genuinely care to know are never answered.

'A Kind of Murder' is a very bleak experience that achieves nothing it sets out to. How a film with the word "murder" in the title can ever turn out quite so boring I'm not sure, but this one manages it. Nothing to see here, watch some of Wilson's other fantastic work from previous years instead.

...'cos if I had I wouldn't have been led down the garden path to this movie's sinkhole of an ending.

Eddie Marsan is great, as always. Jessica Biel is miscast. Storyline is disjointed and far fetched. I would say this is 1958 or 1959 - not the 60's as stated in the synopsis. Patrick Wilson tries hard to make it all believable but it's not enough to carry the film.

I wasn't that interested in this film in the first 10 minutes, then I realised that Patrick Wilson was acting quite well, the direction was good and the sets were totally authentic. The story whilst nothing new or exciting was solid enough, and by about half way there I was well into it. Who dunnit, why did they, are they gonna get caught, I was having a drink and thoroughly enjoying it until the end. Yeah the end just came, out of the blue, from nowhere. And not only that, but it left me wondering, what the heck happened then? Who did what and why? The biggest anti climax in a very long time. I gave it 4 stars but that really was for the great acting from Wilson and Marsan, and the excellent filming. It's lucky to get that tbh because of the way it abruptly came to an end.

I have weighted the film on the lower side of 5 out of 10 for the abysmal ending. As with most movie buffs, we hate to get sucked into a somewhat film noir with plenty of mystery in the early going, only to have the film end rather abruptly without proper closure.

Patrick Wilson who plays Walter Stackhouse, an architect/storyteller/amateur detective is superb in his role. Kudos also to the wardrobe department for their excellent choice for their 1950's period dressage. I also liked the performances by Jessica Biel and Eddie Marsan.

I would try to explain my disappointment by likening it to the purchase of a double scoop of my favorite ice cream placed in a sugar cone only to have taken my first bite and find out the ice cream was sorbet and the sugar cone was actually cardboard. If you can picture that scenario, then that is what I felt I watched with "A Kind of Murder", more like "A Kind of a Let Down"