Loving Adults
What extent can a married couple, shackled together in a loveless union, go to in order to make life (and death) ugly for each other? That’s the grim and, in a rather twisted way, interesting premise of Loving Adults.
The Danish crime drama, clocking a neat 105 minutes, is based on Anna Ekberg’s book Krlighed For Voksne. The film starts off with a cop telling a story of an unsolved case to his daughter on her wedding day. The story of Christian (Dar Salim) and Leonora (Sonja Richter) who play a cat-’n’-mouse game of lies, blackmail and ultimately murder to get rid of each other.
An intriguing twist to the infidelity-thriller genre, Loving Adults uses an unconventional narrative technique and keeps the viewer consistently engaged. It does use some standard tropes — a murky past, crime of passion — but it does make for an interesting watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I also liked how running — both literally and figuratively — is used as a motif through the film. Among the actors, Sonja Richter, who plays both victim and manipulator, packs a punch.
Available on: Netflix
Devil in Ohio
Madeleine Arthur in Devil in Ohio
Currently pretty popular on Netflix globally, Devil in Ohio has a lot going for it, but ultimately falls short on both promise and potential.
Starring Emily Deschanel as a psychologist who brings home a Jane Doe (whose name is later found out to be Mae and is played by Madeleine Arthur) who lands up in hospital after a Satanic sign is carved on her back, this eight-part series throws up mysterious occurrences revolving around a cult in the neighbouring town of Amontown, even as it shows Mae adjusting to her new life with Suzanne (Deschanel) and her family of five.
Peppered with the elements of a typical slow-burn thriller, Devil in Ohio (based on Daria Polatin’s eponymous novel) is ambitious in the way it assembles myriad threads, but is unable to sew them into a cohesive whole. The horror factor is low and despite commendable performances from Emily Deschanel, Madeleine Arthur and Xaria Dotson as Jules, this is a case of what could have been. However, the final twist leaves us in hope that Season 2 — if it manages to be greenlit — will be a better watch.
Available on: Netflix
Echoes
Michelle Monaghan as Gina and Leni in Echoes
Despite the names associated with it — Michelle Monaghan in a double role, Matt Bomer — Echoes is a frustrating watch, not delivering at all on its aim of being a twisty thriller. Monaghan stars as identical twins Gina and Leni, one an author in high-flying Los Angeles and the other a horse farmer in less-fancied Virginia. Since childhood, the two have been swapping lives, sharing two homes, two husbands and a child between them. The twist in the tale arrives in the form of one of them mysteriously going missing.
Adopting a hyperbolic tone from the start and wanting to throw off the viewer with repetitive references and situations, Echoes plods on for over seven episodes. Just when you hope something interesting will come up, the show falls back on predictability and pedestrian storytelling. After a point, you just don’t care anymore. I watched till the end to see where it goes. The answer is: nowhere.
Available on: Netflix
