Impunity

A couple on a killing spree flees to the wild South African seacoast, security camera footage shows scenes of violence and crimes being committed, a high level government minister's daughter is killed on the eve of her marriage, and a couple of police detectives gather to try to make sense of it all. The two detectives do not get far in unraveling the different cases. Unfortunately, neither did I. The film is an edgy kaleidoscope of political intrigue, exotic landscapes and thrilling crime noir, yet it never is firing on all cylinders. Maybe it is one of the films that needs to be seen at least twice to be understood? There is potential here if it is organized better. Seen at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

This could have been an excellent movie. The story was good, the characters were realistic and well played. The two cops were outstanding. However the violence was overplayed, unnecessarily sexually graphic and the killing spree was just not making sense after a while. It just tried to do too much and say too much and somehow lost the plot. Less is more - this could have been a great social commentary on many levels particularly violence against women but it got lost with unnecessarily violent details like the dog licking the blood of the victims.

The movie had its first 30 or 40 minutes focused on sex and nudity and how Echo and Derren killed their victims then the rest of it briefly depicted how they got caught. Not too much about the characters and certainly not too much about how the crimes were solved. I felt like I didn't know what the movie wanted to say after watching it. The only reason I gave a 6 out of 10 was because of the actress who played Echo: Alex McGregor. She was in her early 20s when the movie was made. When a surveillance camera caught her in the movie, her face was so adorable and innocent, couldn't relate her to a reckless and dangerous killer. Most of the time i was just looking at her face when she showed up. This was her first movie that she was topless in her career. She got a nice figure and a pretty face. Oh, by the way, there was a cop with Indian heritage called Naveed. A good cop right? Hard working, decent, truth seeking and putting the job above everything else. But in reality, nope, very contrast to what the movie showed me.