Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets to play a detective’s “Eureka” moment in “Killer Heat,” a new mystery thriller from the French director “Night of the Kings.”
As ex-NYC cop (Aren’t they all?) Nick Bali, he rolls his eyes, paces the crime scene and holds his arms open wide in his best “How did I miss this?”
And we, the viewers, wonder the same damned thing. Because Nick’s epiphany comes one hour and eight minutes in this scenic but generic private eye tale. The average viewer figured all this out an hour (or more) earlier.
The film is set in the Zorba the Greek corner of the Med, the under-filmed island of Crete, which is a plus. Beaches by “the wine dark sea,” an ancient, fortified harbor, twisty, scenic roads winding into the the rocky hills to the edge of even rockier cliffs, this picture is a postcard from a trip you’ll want to take, regardless of the muddled murder mystery that is the movie’s reason for being.
Gordon-Levitt’s got the private eye hat and world-weary gumshoe narration down. The script has him go on and on about “the myth about the guy who flew too high.” What was his name? Oh yeah, “Icarus.”
“Sometimes you use a carrot,” Nick growls in Gordon-Levitt’s best film noir PI voice-over, “Sometimes you use a stick. Sometimes you just lie your ass off.”
He does this all the way through the picture. And considering what the screenplay has Shailene Woodley play, JGL got off easily. Almost every line from the formidable Woodley is exposition, back-story or “explanation.” Actors look at scripts loaded with that for dialogue and mutter “Oh yay. But at least I get a free trip to Crete.”
Woodley plays Penelope, an American with a name from Homer’s “Odyssey” who married money. But the the young director of the family shipping concern (Richard Madden) has died in a free solo climbing accident up those cliffs. Penelope married the dead man’s twin brother, and has her suspicions about what really happened.
So does the viewer and by extension, the reader of this review. But let’s soldier on no matter what we instantly start to “think.”
The investigating cop (Brit actor Babou Ceesay of “The Best of Enemies” and TV’s “We Hunt Together”) considers the “case closed.” But what kind of private eye tale would this be if Nick and Det. Georges Mensah didn’t “team up” to crack the case? One a lot less generic than “Killer Heat,” sad to say.
The casting is on-the-nose, with Madden (“Eternals,” TV’s “Game of Thrones”) summoning the perfect privileged prick look and sketchy temper to play the “surviving twin we have doubts about.”
The family intrigues don’t amount to much, and Nick’s “secret” — the thing that has him sneaking sips from bottles all over the island — is even less original. Flashbacks to his marriage add nothing to that lack of novelty.
I’d like to see the under-employed Gordon-Levitt get a few more James McAvoy-type tough short guy roles. But JGL has played too many sweethearts to bring much “edge” to the party, and he’s unwilling or unable to convincingly play the toughest voice-over line of all.
“I don’t mind getting beat up. There’s a certain dignity in it.”
Yeah, right. Light up a Lucky Strike, Bogie. At least the scenery’s nice.
Rating: R, violence, sex, profanity
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Richard Madden, Clare Holman and Babou Ceesay.
Credits: Directed by
Philippe Lacôte, scripted by Matt Charman and Roberto Bentivegna, based on a short story by Jo Nesbø. An MGM/Amazon Prime release.
Running time: 1:37
