Sometimes there’s pleasure to be taken in genre familiarity if the muscles are appropriately and well-flexed. An effectively written voiceover, haunted protagonist, seductive femme fatale — these are all tropes of noir and new-noir, but whether they feel fresh or hoary is all down to the execution. Which bring us to Philippe Lacôte’s Killer Heat, which, despite the occasional very slightly novel element, is nevertheless firmly on the “utterly generic” side of the spectrum, so much so that its very premise, once described, basically gives away the entire mystery, leaving the details of mood, performance, and direction to carry the picture. They don’t.
Based on a novel by noted Norwegian writer Jo Nesbø, the film finds private detective Nick Ball (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) arriving on the isle of Crete at the behest of his client, Penelope Vardakis (Shailene Woodley), who wants him to investigate the death of her brother-in-law, Leo (Richard Madden), who fell off a cliff while free-climbing. Interestingly, Leo has a twin brother, Elias (also Richard Madden). The family is very rich and has its fingers in a lot of Crete’s goings-on. If you can’t guess what happened and who is in on it from that very limited summary, then Killer Heat might just be for you. On the flip side, nobody else will find much to mine here.
The movie is excruciatingly dull in its plodding through what passes for Nick’s investigation, as we wait for him to figure out what we’ve already guessed. Meanwhile, we’re treated to endless flashbacks to both his past trauma (crappy marriage, drinking problem) and to previous scenes (to explain to us stuff we, yes, have already figured out). It’s all slathered in some truly abysmal hard-boiled narration. A favorite: “Sometimes you use a carrot, sometimes you use a stick, sometimes you just lie your ass off.” Okay. And another: “A monastery… the last place I wanted to be. No redemption, no churches… no thank you.” Killer Heat is rich in howlers.
Gordon-Levitt is entirely unconvincing as a tortured obsessive, which is disappointing given how engrossing he was in a very similar role in Brick so many years ago. Elsewhere, Woodley tries her best but is direly miscast as someone who is neither seductive enough to be a proper risk for Nick, nor ultimately diabolical enough to be credibly calculating — although her status as a femme fatale is up for debate in one of the narrative’s few novel elements. Director Lacôte (Night of the Kings) sure does make Crete look nice, though, so maybe instead of suffering this totally inert movie you could just watch a nice travel show about the island instead. It’s bound to be more entertaining and authentic than whatever Killer Heat is.
DIRECTOR: Philippe Lacôte; CAST: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Richard Madden, Babou Ceesay; DISTRIBUTOR: Amazon Prime Video; STREAMING: September 26; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 36 min.
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