A Kind of Murder

2016
5.3| 1h36m| en| More Info
Released: 16 December 2016 Released
Producted By: Killer Films
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.magpictures.com/akindofmurder
Synopsis

In 1960s New York, Walter Stackhouse is a rich, successful architect and unhappily married to the beautiful but damaged Clara. His desire to be free of her feeds his obsession with Kimmel, a man suspected of brutally murdering his own wife. When Walter and Kimmel's lives become dangerously intertwined, a ruthless police detective becomes convinced he has found the murderer. But as the lines blur between innocence and intent, who, in fact, is the real killer?

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Reviews

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
ritera1 Very ironic that it was based on a novel called "The Blunderer" as it was a mess at every turn.I'm guessing but being that they somehow had the authentic locales, wardrobe and the shockingly numerous vehicles of the times, tried to build a movie around those. Or just didn't care about anything else. Even that failed as there were countless wide shots that should have been nice but just didn't work. The broad strokes were the actual direction that only essentially employed wide shots of interactions between characters with very few close-ups when close-ups are what these "noirs" rely on most. A vast majority of the dialogue and plot were delivered in a matter-of- fact way that completely ignored subtleties and nuances. Eddie Marsan and Vincent Kartheiser at least made a half-hearted attempt to act while the rest of the cast and leads essentially walked through the piece.(Being that the whole thing was delivered in a very flat manner and the prevalence of foreign money in films, I have to speculate that had an influence as some foreign films have that kind of storytelling. Further research showed it had Japanese, Philippine, Singapore, Middle Eastern and German money behind it. But there was a very stark example of such in a movie called Child of God by James Franco and had a prevalent Chinese company, Well-Go USA, behind it. It, too, was a period piece in the 50s South but extremely esoteric and the last thing you'd think Chinese audience would relate to. And of course the obvious Marvel and Transformers films.)Even the snow was bad as it often had a snow effect but none to very little snow on the ground. Jumping to the end, it also ignored the tried and true rule about this genre. The killer is always the one you least expect. But no, it was the first person you expected and was completely devoid of being clever. And it never answered the question about the Biel's death. I GUESS it was suicide although never clarified such. We are introduced to Wilson's eventual love interest Bennett in a completely non-dramatic way. He is not shown to be smitten or awestruck. She just---appears. They have a conversation and she leaves. Biel is jealous.And then the rest was just sloppy nonsense. We see the killer obviously set up an alibi by making himself known to the kid in the movie theater. He then leaves and it looks like he's up to no good. In all but this movie, that turns out to be a red herring. But here? No. He is actually the bumbling killer who ended up murdering his wife in a very sloppy and public way. Then we see a few scenes where the killer and the kid seem to have some sort of arrangement or agreement about all this. In vague terms, the kid is on the killer's side. But does he know the killer is actually the killer? Just bumbling nonsense.Bennett then shows with the potted planet and seems to flirt with an uninterested Wilson, who then shows up at her singing gig. It's at THAT point that we see he is smitten. For a very long time we do not see either Wilson or Bennett together whatsoever. No reason to think anything has happened. Biel insists that she followed her husband to Bennett's apartment. (In what? They have one car. She took the bus to her mother's house.) I got the impression that she was just crazy as we the audience did not see any further interaction between the two.But no. That did in fact happen as we find out much later in flashback.Wilson follows Biel on the bus and loses her somehow and we are never told how. He quickly makes himself known to a witness but lies about it to the detective later. Even though the detective easily finds out Wilson is lying, Wilson continues to lie (about the bookseller/murderer) coupled with being very obvious about his new girlfriend and telling everything to his supposed best friend.And where did Bennett hide in Wilson's house when the detective showed up?Frustrated and at the end of his rope, the detective then somehow enrages the killer with a feeble argument about class-ism so the killer then can go after Wilson. Sure enough, the killer does that and, for some reason, chases Wilson out of a very public bar and into the shadowy catacombs that were apparently adjacent and very accessible to this bar. Police of course close on their tails.A little point about wearing glasses, which the killer did. The cop crushed the glasses under his foot (off-camera) and the killer was without his coke bottle specs. But this didn't seem to slow him down one bit. Anybody who wears glasses would call BS on this one.Miss it. Don't waste your time unless you like laughing at bad film making.
adonis98-743-186503 In 1960s New York, Walter Stackhouse is a successful architect married to the beautiful Clara who leads a seemingly perfect life. But his fascination with an unsolved murder leads him into a spiral of chaos as he is forced to play cat-and-mouse with a clever killer and an overambitious detective, while at the same time lusting after another woman. This whole film is about a guy and if he killed his wife or not? The movie starts from nowhere and leads to nowhere the acting is dreadful, the script was written probably in 2 days and the direction is even worse and you can tell what happened just from the first 5 minutes also the ending was super weird. Overall awful film with awful characters, script, story and direction don't waste your time or your money to this.
wildblueyonder Can't understand the low rating, but I guess it goes to show ya...This was a wonderful movie with wonderful acting. Patrick Wilson is brilliant, if you understand the movie the way I think I understand it. There is such a tremendous undercurrent of social commentary in the movie, and I think it was beautifully casted.Jessica Biel is beautiful, no doubt, but she is so feminine and alluring in this movie it well exceeded expectations. Eddie Marsen is a fantastic actor and Vincent Kartheiser (from Mad Men) is inspired in this role.I love a period piece, and this one is shot warmly for most of the movie. The social commentary always gets me - combined with great acting its a total keeper. Enjoy!
lavatch In the bonus segment of the DVD for "A Kind of Murder," the director Andy Goddard describes his goal of filming a psychological thriller. Unfortunately, the results of his efforts were not terribly exciting.One of the problems of the film is that the script was based on one of the inferior works of the writer Patricia Highsmith, whose strength was typically in the area of psychological crime fiction. The film develops parallel murder stories with two men, Mr. Stackhouse and Mr. Kimmel, who engage in a cat-and-mouse game with each other.Either Stackhouse or Kimmel (or both...or neither) could actually have murdered their wives. The most engaging part of the film was the proposition in Stackhouse's mind that he was guilty of his wife's death merely because he secretly desired it. This psychological concept was brilliantly developed by Dostoevsky in his masterpiece "The Brothers Karamazov." But Highsmith's presentation lacks depth and truly profound psychological insights.The cast of "A Kind of Murder" was excellent with Patrick Wilson, Jessica Biel, Eddit Marsan, and Haley Bennett. Bennett was good in her role as a torch song performer in a moody underground nightclub. The design team effectively captured the period of the '60s, and the film was well scored. Unfortunately, the overall effect was just not very compelling.