Rating: C+
Dir: József Pacskovszky
Star: Zsolt László, Nóra Hörich, Tamás Szabó Kimmel, Gyözö Szabó
a.k.a. A tökéletes gyilkos
This starts off as if it’s going to be a throwback to the “loose cannon cop” movies of the eighties. Homicide detective Kamenár (László) solves a hostage crisis by replacing the hostage, then crashing the car with him and the perpetrator. Turns out to be more complex – or at least there seems to be a bit of a justification for his death wish. A few years back, Kamenár’s daughter fell off a cliff while high on drugs, and his wife has now decided to become a nun(!). All of which comes to a head on his new murder, the prime suspect in which is Petra (Hörich, though apparently dubbed by another Hungarian actress).
Fingerprints and CCTV footage of her fleeing the scene seem to make it an easy case to solve. Yet she turns up on Kamenár’s doorstep, pleading her innocence. Which is awkward because she was with his daughter when the fatal accident took place. After Petra gains his trust by detailing the incident – for which Kamenár has his share of responsibility – he comes to believe her denial of involvement. If it wasn’t her though, who was it? He finds other, similar cases, quickly closed despite the suspect pleading their innocence, and begins to suspect a vigilante inside the department is cleaning the scum off the streets. They are using their police skills to set up and frame suitable patsies for the killings.
It’s not hard to figure out who is responsible, given the relatively small list of candidates. However, it doesn’t feel like the film is a “whodunit”, being more interested in the character of Kamenár, and his need to come to terms with his daughter’s death. As such, it relies more on László’s performance than plotting, and that’s probably wise, since the latter is occasionally shaky. Petra showing up on Kamenár’s doorstep is one thing; that she then tries to seduce him, appears to have strayed in from PornHub. Fortunately, László is up to his end of the task, and makes Kamenár an interesting take on what could easily have been the usual Scandinoir trope, of the smart detective with a troubled personal life.
One weirdness is the way virtually every shot is filmed through a sickly green filter (top). I’m not sure what point they were trying to make here. Given the title, they could perhaps also have stretched out the question of whether or not Petra is innocent for longer, perhaps mixing in suspicion about a role in her friend’s death, or Kamenár doubting her to a greater degree. Instead, that gets disposed of quite quickly, albeit all the better to get on to the main plot. At not much longer than ninety minutes, the pace is brisk, leading to a confrontation between Kamenár and the killer, in a ruined church near his wife’s convent. If it’s probably not a movie you’ll particularly remember, I was never tempted to start browsing my phone. So there’s that.