L'homme du labyrinthe

A kidnapped girl is found 15 years after her abduction. A celebrated psychiatrist is trying to deal with her trauma and a retired detective who only has hours to live is ready to put it all on the line to find a vicious killer. Will he be able to succeed? And who is the real villain?

Donato Carrisi adapts his rather complex and at times convoluted plot to a film that makes surprising sense. That alone is an achievement. This is chronologically the third book in the series which makes it a particularly difficult adaptation. The good news - it works out well.

Writers rarely makes good directors. Carrisi is an exception. Choosing carefully his colour pallet he nods to the "giallo" sub-genre of the 80s and draws inspiration from the likes of Dario Argento (Suspiria). The whole movie feels like a dream-like sequence, although it is more procedural crime fiction than anything else.

What makes the movie feel focused is its great performances. Dustin Hoffman as Dr Green who is trying to get into the mind of a beautiful victim and Toni Servillo (THE GREAT BEAUTY) as a dying detective who has made it his life goal to catch the killer, carry the film on their shoulders. The story has an episodic structure and echoes heavily the SAW franchise, although, I am sure, Carrisi would be devastated to hear of the comparison. What he has been trying to create with his books (and films) is a serial killer cinematic universe. INTO THE LABYRINTH may not be the best start, but it definitely has the potential to becoming a mystery to remember.

I am not usually leaving reviews here but i honestly think that this movie is underrated. It kept me excited for the full 2 hours, something that nowadays hardly a movie manages.

The good: great actors, beautifully photographed, nice music score, intrigueing start of the story.

The bad: this movie is somehow lacking in spark and punch. The stories plot isnt very original either, bit of a bummer actually. It is part Italian spoken, part english spoken.

I think this movie is best suited for an arhouse audience, which has got the patience for longstretched scenes with only dialogue. It is definitely not a bad movie, but somehow I am missing the excitement that I usually get when watching a movie about kidnapping.

Certainly not bad. I was captivated throughout the movie. But I just didn't get it, yet I got a proper education. Maybe there is some high brow meta explanation that the story itself is a labyrinth? Maybe it is about the psyche of people that experience a trauma and make up an imaginary reality? I don't know where they were going with this as I did not get why half the movie was in Italian and the other part in English.

Good film, very atmospheric, some great scenes. Could have been better. Lead actress was absolutely terrible performance.