Double face

This movie is one of the better Belgian crime movies I've seen so far. In the beginning the movie has its flaws with some unclear scenes or stereotypes, but the more you get involved in the murder case, the more clear it becomes how excellent the cinematography fits with some exciting action scenes. Towards the climax of the movie there are some very well directed action scenes and the movies becomes more tensive and the story as well proves to be more ingenious.

I loved DOSSIER K, ten years ago, from the same director and starring the same leads too. It was a bleak, dark, story about Albanese mafia. This one is one more serial killer scheme, as dozens of millions stories written for movie and TV industries. Not my basic cup of tea, but some of them are awesome, riveting, poignant, and above all, unusual, providing great surprises. This one is not worst than other ones, and at least better than most American that I have seen; and I admit that there were not batches of them. I repeat, I don't crave for serial killers. From Belgian, I could expect something gruesome and of course awesome in the same time. I remember WASTE LAND and THE BEAST several years ago, from Belgian too. Not for the squeamish and the whole family at supper time.....This one is a bit smoother, compared to the two previous movies, and closer to the German's LAND OF MURDERS ; itself the remake of the Spanish LA ISLA MINIMA.... But, I repeat, I am not a specialist of this kind of movie. Maybe I am wrong.

Some things are easy to see through and I would say, if you've seen a couple of thrillers, you won't have any issues seeing where this is heading. Still the characters are interesting and you can mostly understand their motivation and also can relate in general.

That is until the very end, where it all blows up. Well at least a little bit. Depending on your views of how it ties things together at the end and especially how it resolves them, you may have a problem with the movie. If not, you will be enjoying a crime drama, that is predictable but still has class and good actors in it.

I watched this movie without subtitles in its original language given as Dutch. Being able to speak Dutch I had great difficulty in understanding what was actually being said, only to discover it was a mixture of Dutch and a Flemish dialect which I couldn't understand.

This spoilt the movie to a great extent but I pressed on watching. It is a slow paced thriller, with lots of dialogue. It has a number of twists but the movie is much too long. In the end it reached a conclusion with a bit of action which probably saved the movie from failure.

Make sure that you watch it with subtitles, which is bothersome to read but would make the film more understandable. I was robbed of this but would not want to see it again with subtitles. It is no more than an average movie at best.

"Control" is a much better title than "Het Tweede Gelaat," which translates as "Double Face." The film is a police procedural / psychological thriller / bromance. Commanding officer Vincke is a bit of a control freak, while Chief Inspector Verstuyft goes by his instincts. Rina keeps her patients under control with psychoactive drugs, but is out of control personally. Various VIPs attempt to control the investigation. The investigating judge is frustrated in her attempts to control Verstuyft, as is Vincke.

It's a well-made film with a Byzantine plot, plenty of red herrings, credible performances, three-dimensional characters, solid production values, a good chase scene, an effective climax and poetic justice for the villain.