3 Short Paragraphs: The Postcard Killings

2020, Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land) -- download

Flick flick flick. I am regularly in the mood for Generic Crime Fiction, like a long-running TV police procedural, or a low-key British crime drama, or a movie about investigating a strange serial killer. Of late, the lighter fare has been supplanted by dark, moodier pieces such as David Tennant's Broadchurch (and its American counterpart Gracepoint which also starred Tennant and was released around the same time) but I find the unrelenting darkness to those, to be too much when flick flick flicking. Luckily, we have the endless re-runs on ION TV (do cable people get these ION channels? We have OTA so we have a couple of them) but sometimes I find myself trolling the Trailer sections of a couple of sites, to see if anything new-ish movie-ish has come out. Thus this flick (different context) starring fav Jeffrey Dean Morgan based on a novel by James Patterson and Swedish crime writer Liza Marklund.

Have you ever read my posts (i already know the answer) and wondered, "What's with the personal anecdotes, just get to the movie review; this ain't a fricking online recipe!"

Morgan plays Kanon, an American detective who comes to the UK to deal with the unusual murder of his daughter and her husband. The bodies were artfully posed, and a postcard sent to a local journalist, poetic notes implying... something. This is pre-Brexit UK, so it lends itself to quickly crossing borders as the serial murders escalate in other countries. Kanon doesn't care that he doesn't have jurisdiction, he's a NYC cop by God, so he insinuates himself into the investigation, because, of course he does.

Despite the charm of Morgan (yes, I am a fan), the movie never rises from C-grade entertainment. The killers are only mildly interesting and the plotting never really rises above that of the worst episodes of Criminal Minds. His European co-stars, including the reporter who tags along once the Chase the Killers starts, are barely more than sounding boards for Kanon, and fluctuate between interfering with his American bull in china shop approach to policing, and sympathizing with the grieving father. I sensed this was a longshot attempt at creating another The Girl with... franchise, but the lazy production of this movie killed that idea.