Pretty much out of nowhere, a mysterious woman, Alice (Ayvianna Snow) waltzes into Detective Franc's (Amber Doig-Thorne) office to make a missing person report regarding her husband Austin (Carmelo Viviani) who has disappeared exactly 8 years ago. However, she's more than vague about why she reports it only now, why she apparently hasn't even tried to find him herself, or even about his age. So Franc doesn't take the case very seriously - until she gets a call from psychic Iris (Alice Stevenson), who wants to help her solve a decade-old killing spree. Of course, Franc doesn't take her seriously either, but is pretty much professionally obliged to hear her out - and among the photos Iris has collected of the case is a photo that shows Austin ... together with her own mother, Kathleen (Roe Haven). So Franc follows up Iris's clues and soon is thrown into a sordid story that involves a gangster kingpin (Michael Fausti), the chief of police (Laurence R. Harvey), her peers (Dean Kilbey, Mark Collier), Iris's own psychic turned dominatrix mother (Dani Thompson) and quite a few murdered woman, and makes her learn more about her life, her mother and even herself. But will she be able to put the pieces together quickly enough before the walls close in?

This film is certainly a very unique experience: Sure, storywise it's a complex noir, but one garnered with supernatural and metaphysical elements, one that at times follows the routes of associative storytelling and that works on more than one timeline. And while this admittedly makes the plot not always easy to follow, it at the same time creates a fascinating maze, also helped by its slightly artificial yet poignant dialogues and its directorial style that while borrowing heavily from film noir, manages to draw one in by its choice of cameraangles that often seem a bit off but all the more fascitnating for it. And add to that a strong cast playing colourful characters and you've got yourself a pretty cool movie.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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