THURSDAY THE 12TH

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sensuality, language, thematic elements

Rated:

There are a lot of whodunits on the market, but none with quite as interesting an approach as this foreign production. It is less figuring out afterward who killed who and more watching the motives fall into place and wondering out who is going to kick the bucket first. When you have a household of people who each want someone else dead, that immediately complicates matters.

It has been five years since their daughter drowned in the pool, her finger stuck in the filter at the deep end, but the Bannister family is still torn apart by guilt and grief. Marius (Ciarán Hinds) consoles himself with a budding political career, his ambition to abandon his dental practice and bury himself in Parliament, where he can make a "real difference" in the world. His emotionally distant wife Nina (Maria Doyle Kennedy) is unsupportive of this decision and their relationship has been platonic ever since the accident, which has allowed her mentally unstable sister Candice (Elizabeth McGovern) to horn in. Still annoyed that twenty years ago, Marius ran off with Nina while they were dating, Candice has gotten her own back by cleverly inserting her into their marriage. And then there is Martin (Jim Sturgess), the adopted son that allowed his sister to drown and never shows up at his therapist's office for his scheduled sessions.

It's the day of the primaries and the house is in turmoil. Marius has reason to want Candice out of the picture, after having her threaten to jeopardize his political career if he pushes her out of his life. Nina has just about had enough of her husband throwing the memory of their daughter around in order to gain the sympathy vote. Candice could do without her older sister, and Martin is contemplating whether or not his grandfather (Peter Vaughan) should have to suffer through the humiliation of Alzheimer's. By the end of the day, there is a body in the Bannister house and police crawling all over the grounds, but just who is going to meet their Maker ahead of schedule?

The formula of this mystery is brilliant but also a tad redundant. We get to see the day through the perspective of each of the four individuals involved, and thus pieces start falling into place, moments where you think, "Ahh, that is why he/she looked at the other person that way!" However, after about the second repeat I started getting a little bored, and think that ultimately the film could have been trimmed down by at least an hour by not recapping quite so much of each conversation. I'm not saying it failed to keep my interest, because I was more than hooked, just that I'm not sure if its premise was sheer brilliance or a risk that just barely paid off. That being said, the cast involved is superb. Ciarán causes the audience to waver between love and hatred for him, and McGovern is appropriately threatening, but the true gem is Kennedy. She says more in a single glance than anyone I have ever seen. If you don't find your heart tied up in knots halfway through her performance, you must have lost all emotion.

Because Marius is having an affair with Candice, there are several scenes that highlight their relationship. She unbuttons her blouse and comes on to him early in the film. They kiss passionately before Marius puts an end to it. In her version of the story, we see Candice discreetly removing her panties and stashing them in a drawer in the office before he comes in. Martin later finds them and confronts her about the affair. Nina has bugged the office and listens in on their heavy breathing. Marius tries to entice his wife into physical contact, but she will have none of it. Her reasons are that their daughter died while she and her husband had slipped off for a quickie. 

We see them fooling around in a granulated flashback, mostly glimpses of her face. Dialogue reveals the fact that Nina set her husband up with Candice as a test of whether or not he was faithful to her. She and Candice have several arguments about the outcome. There are at least four abuses of Jesus' name but not much other profanity. Thematic elements revolve around a child's death and a family's grief. I am not sorry to have seen it, since by the conclusion it had left me with a lot to think about. It's one of those films that is going to stick with you awhile, but at the same time it could have moved a little more smoothly as it unfolded. Nevertheless, I have the feeling that a second viewing may staple my opinion of it as brilliant.