As with any other film formula, if the ideas are good enough, these proposals can be successfully reinvented. After 24 minutes from the start of the movie Misanthrope, we realize how the project will be very different from others that deal with serial killer hunts. It is a brief dialogue in which Lammark (Ben Mendelsohn), the head of the FBI investigation, offers advice to the young officer Eleanor Falco (Shailene Woodley): “Be an artist, not a police officer.”
The thriller procedural and police have become so common within the cinematographic offer that most of its elements are already identified without much problem by the public that usually consumes them. Thus, anyone would think that there are no reasons to continue exploring –and exploiting– this subgenre. But the reality is that he still has a lot to give.
The director, Damián Szifron, knows this and for this reason, deceptively, he presents his film in a somewhat conventional way. Before the dialogue mentioned in the opening paragraph, what we see is an explosive and bloody attack in which the murderer takes advantage of a New Year’s celebration, including fireworks, to eliminate several citizens in a shootout. After that, Lammark proposes to Falco an alliance. She will be the liaison between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Baltimore Police Department.
The objective of those involved in the production is to make the viewer think that this will be another tape that obeys rules that have already been used before. However, from one moment to the next, everything changes, and it becomes more than just a game of cat and mouse. It is time for the characters to become artists.
Without warning, the script, written by Szifron and Jonathan Wakeham, leaves aside the classic narrative structure that takes us from point A to point B to catch the murderer. Here, rather than focusing on a single conflict, what we are shown is everything that happens around the main arc. The writers build their characters so well that it is always believable how they reach the conclusions to solve the case, but they never lose sight of the fact that if they reached such conclusions, it is because the city that surrounds them is always there. awake and vibrant. The danger is always there and this allows the investigators to be vigilant at all times, paying full attention to detail.
These details are not just clues present at crime scenes. Absolutely everything that makes up the painting in turn is telling us something, conversing with us. From a wide pool in which Eleanor submerges to meditate on her day to a garbage dump lying in the middle of the snow.
There, in the immensity of the mesmerizing city –portrayed by Javier Juliá with cold and melancholic beauty–, the late-night agents think, they do not act on instinct. For this reason, little by little they enter a labyrinth of infinite possibilities in which the director cannot contain his obsessions. Hence, from very small details, such as a silent operation in a convenience store, everything ends in stinging chaos. From his first film, The bottom of the sea (2003), Szifron has managed to create small chaos stories that gracefully analyze the behavior of modern society and that feel like epic sagas despite having contained lengths. Perhaps the pacing is slow in some sequences, but it is made up for by the sharpness and firmness of the performances.
This time the same thing happens, but it manages to strip away the quality of black comedy present in films like brave time (2005) and wild tales (2014) to create a completely different effect. This time, as disorder embraces us, they continue to talk about how we react to the injustices of the system, but hilarity is not used to enhance this reaction. Here, with a gloomy setting, the importance of mental health is discussed, especially in an environment where anything can happen.
Misanthrope it is a film in which things are in their place. It’s cerebral, but that doesn’t stop it from being stimulating and even suffocating. Even its ending, which consists of a lengthy exchange of words, maintains the suspense while making us question whether we’re actually in tune with what makes us human. In the end, that discomfort is extremely enjoyable.
Jose Roberto Landaverde I love writing, listening, reading and commenting on everything related to cinema. I love music and am a fan of The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac and Paramore. My favorite movies are Rocky and Back to the Future and obviously one day I’ll climb the “Philly Steps” and drive a DeLorean. Faithful believer that cinema is the best teleportation machine, and also that on the big screen we can all see ourselves represented.