Susan Granger’s review of “Dark Crimes” (Lionsgate/Saban Films/DirectTV)
Appropriately titled, this sordid crime thriller, set in Eastern Europe, begins with a scene of writhing naked women being brutally dragged through a dingy corridor and viciously raped – all part of a now-shuttered underworld sex club.
That’s on a video tape unearthed in the basement of Krakow Police Headquarters by a disgraced police officer, Tudek (Jim Carrey), who connects the plot of a new ‘audio novel’ by imperceptibly psychotic author Krystof Kozlov (Marton Czokas) with an old, unsolved murder case.
Guided by his Polish pal Piotr (Vlad Ivanov), Tudek gradually works out the intricacies that connect wily Kozlov to corrupt Detective Greger (Robert Wieckiewicz), who was originally assigned to the murder case and has now been promoted to Police Chief.
Predictably and seemingly inevitably, since his wife (Agata Kulesza) is openly antagonistic, Tudek indulges in an indiscreet interlude with Kozlov’s sado-masochistic, drug-addicted girlfriend, Kasia (Charlotte Gainsboug), that both clarifies and complicates matters further, eventually delivering an unexpected twist.
Allegedly based on a true story, it’s adapted by Jeremy Brock (“The Last King of Scotland”) from David Grann’s 2008 New Yorker article, “True Crime: A Postmodern Murder Mystery,” about a Polish writer, Kyrstian Bala, who was incarcerated after the plot of one of his novels was tied to an unsolved homicide.
Greek director Alexandros Avranas (“Miss Violence”) evidences only a disconcerting, pedestrian blandness as dreary scenes seemingly drone on.
The singular intriguing quality of this degrading film is Jim Carrey’s grimly serious performance which never reveals even a glimmer of the 54 year-old actor’s inherent charm or charisma. It’s totally unlike anything dramatic he’s ever attempted, including “Man on the Moon,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “The Truman Show.”
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Dark Crimes” is an exploitative 2 – inept and often incoherent.
