A creepy taxidermist (a ringer for Rumpelstiltskin) mentors a handsome young stud, overpays him with money borrowed from the Mafioso and plies him with wine, women & song. But the hunk is too dense & too straight to tumble into sex or enlightenment. It’s a neat set up for a perverse/erotic thriller, but megger Matteo Garrone doesn’t bother to connect the dots in his story. And, trained as a painter, he’s so busy ladling on his visual palette that he smothers everything in super-saturated color, posterized imaging and high contrast lighting.* No doubt, he’s trying to cover all the holes in his narrative, but noirs that can only move from plot point to plot point via character stupidity & contrivance quickly lose their power to take us over to the dark side. *Damned if it wasn't arty enough to earn a handful of Italian Film Awards & Nominations.
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