Detective Tom Nichols sits behind his desk as ominous music suggests that he has a vital clue on the monitor that will lead him to the perpetrator of a brutal murder. But this time, the minimalist dark accompaniment is deceiving, just like the unreadable face of Benicio del Toro, who embodied the protagonist of the procedural crime thriller The Lizard. There is only a sink faucet on the screen. She cast a spell on the hero at the crime scene.
Debutant director with experience in video clips Grant Singer spares similar jokes. The Lizard, which can be seen on Netflix, on the other hand, has a similar harsh and hopeless mood for most of the time, as the few fleeting quick shots of the murder of a young woman, which ended with 33 stab wounds. They were conducted with such force that the knife stuck in the pelvis.
Tommy has seen a lot in the industry. But he had just moved from Philadelphia to a new job somewhere in New England. Acting as a taciturn avenger of injustice, he rarely speaks, but Benicio del Toro has only to sit in silence to magnetize the audience with a nuanced understated performance. Although he appears to be the last righteous criminal, even he is tainted by the suspicion that he was once a silent observer of corruption.
Del Toro participated in the project as a producer and co-screenwriter, during the development the film was financially supported by Netflix, and now The Lizard is one of the most promising genre works of this platform, which in the field of film production is far less successful than in series. Director and co-screenwriter Singer borrows the cold, gloomy atmosphere from masters of the genre such as Michael Mann or David Fincher. With a gradual, mysterious development, it will also remind Disappearance by Denise Villeneuve.
Sometimes it can be seen from the clips that the filmmaker knows how to play with image and sound and is not afraid of using the ability. The ominous music almost does not disappear, scenes of luxurious dinners alternate with scenes of darkened apartments and their surroundings on the periphery. It doesn’t always turn out as elegantly as the creator would have liked, but the result – especially for a debut – is impressive. Mainly because of how it can zigzag through relatively familiar terrain.
The partner of the real estate agent Will became the victim of the murder. He was portrayed by Justin Timberlake as an ambitious guy who is clearly going through a bit of a crisis in the opening with his girlfriend Summer. It only takes a few words and the moment when the girl doesn’t arrive at the presentation he cares about so much that a certain tension is evident. Unfortunately, this is soon solved when Will finds his girlfriend and colleague in the real estate business in one of the houses for sale in a state incompatible with life.
Tom played by Benicio del Toro just looks like the last righteous criminal. | Photo: Netflix
There are several suspects. Will himself seems rather unreadable. Then there’s the ex-husband, technically still married to Summer and acting like something between an artist and a junkie. A strange guy from the neighborhood with a long, meaty hair, a strange accent and a cap on his head does not inspire confidence in the police either. However, even Tommy’s colleagues in the department do not exactly impress the Swift Arrows, whose hearts only beat for justice. The hero must be careful who and what to trust.
The name of the lizard already refers to something primordial, even primitive in us, which corresponds to the extreme character of the murder. The pathology report states that the subject has never seen wounds driven with such force. But Singer’s film is particularly notable for the way it plays with these clues and the heritage of the crime genre.
The director does not, like David Fincher in many of his crime films, capture the detective’s descent into madness while dealing with the actions of a mad mind. Rather, between the lines of his deliberately hypocritical work, he reflects on today’s times, which no longer desire the intuition of a genius investigator, on the times in which anything can be just an eye.
Instead of the perverted plan of some genius psychopath, the criminalist can calmly compete with solving a heinous crime for completely different reasons.
It doesn’t have to be the work of a maniacal mind, to which we as viewers or readers are so happy to succumb, because we can’t help it and are tempted to look into the soul of a depraved individual who thinks outside of normal norms. What if the given act is terrible precisely because of its pragmatic nature and the fact that there are no “mitigating” circumstances in the form of a non-standard mental state of the perpetrator?
The Lizard sometimes gives the impression of a slightly trying work that wants to imitate the tricks of its predecessors. In the second half, it can be drawn out to the point where we start to lose interest in how it turns out. But it’s worth persevering. Not because of the plot, which is not one of the most surprising in this genre. Rather, because we are watching the work of a promising talent who, despite the obvious derivation and inspiration from crime fiction classics, has the desire to introduce small nuances into the genre.
Grant Singer certainly suffers from the ailment of first-time filmmakers showing how layered and thoughtful an act he’s created without all the trappings being completely effective. But there are still enough details in Ještěr that will delight not only lovers of gloomy detective thrillers.
After all, the film looks similar to the acting performance of Benicio del Toro. At first glance, we always read the same thing in his face with a small moustache. At the same time, it is a creation that is accurate to the millimeter, which will win you over with its self-control.
Unlike del Toro, Singer may sometimes count in centimeters rather than millimeters, but it’s enough to keep his house from collapsing.
Film
Lizard
Directed by: Grant Singer
The film is available on Netflix.
2023-10-12 15:33:39
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