The setting is striking and ancient, with the unmistakable Bridges of Edinburgh used as a backdrop time and time again.
There’s no real reason for the Italian pan-national thriller “It’s Not Over” to set 20 or so scenes in front of, say, the Forth Bridge, and use it and other bridges dozens of other times as establishing shots. But then there are a lot of things seriously unexplained in this cinematic claptrap.
Perhaps the reason Edinburgh is never uttered is that the city sued to get their name out of this debacle. It’s certainly the worst movie ever filmed in Scotland.
It’s got an Italian star (Gianna Capaldi) doing his damnedest to manage a Scots accent. It’s got Frenchman Christopher Lambert playing his father and leaving any attempts to speak Scots to Craig Ferguson.
The femme fatale our young hero, Max, falls for is named Sarah, just buried her husband and mentions her childhood in “Colorado” — in the Polish-Italian accent of Weronika Rosati.
She’s been cheating on that abusive husband and assure her lover Max that she’ll break the news to him. But instead, Max shows up as the cops are tidying up after an “accident” that killed the creep and left Sarah a beautiful, rich widow.
Sarah loves to take Polaroids of freshly-killed animals as “art,” and speaks in foreshadowing “riddles” that are not riddles at all.
“You’re good with a knife.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice,” you know, as “a kid” growing up in “Colorado.”
Rosati is truly terrible on the screen, a Lake Bell look-like with no presence at all. Saddling her with an even less charismatic co-star seems fitting, as Capaldi’s lifeless performance matches the corpse Max is destined to become.
“It’s not over,” he gasps, unconvincingly, as he bleeds out. And so it isn’t. Curious/furious Dad, and visions of Max haunt our murderess as she goes about her Polaroid-snapping business in a city that refuses to left her call it by name.
The cop (Ian Reddington) who investigates Max’s disappearance? The one who keeps dismissing parental concern with “just a coincidence” and “people take off all the time” — repeatedly? He’s so indifferent you half expect an American accent out of him.
Writer-director Alessandro Riccardi makes his writing directing debut with this debacle. I swear I saw a “based on a novel by” credit, but didn’t jot it down and can’t find it mentioned anywhere.
Just as well. One and all will have her or his career scarred by this disaster. No sense adding to the body count.
Rating: R, violence, sex
Cast: Gianni Capaldi, Weronika Rosati and Christopher Lambert
Credits: Scripted and directed by Alessandro Riccardi, based on a novel by someone who’d rather their name was left out of this. A Lionsgate release.
Running time: 1:31