318. In Darkness; movie review

IN DARKNESS
Cert 15
101 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong violence, language, sex, injury detail

Well, this was unexpected. Because In Darkness had scarcely had a cinema run and gone very quickly to on-demand, I presumed it would not excite me much.
My fears seemed to be confirmed by a rating of just 5.7/10 on Internet Movie Database.
How wrong I was. Even though I watched it on my laptop on a train, I was enthralled by this unusual, twisting and explosive thriller.
Anthony Byrne's film stars Natalie Dormer as Sophie, a blind pianist who hears the death of a neighbour (Emily Ratajkowski) through the walls of her apartment.
Dormer really grabs the audience through the combination of vulnerability and determination of her character.
Meanwhile, Neil Maskell is the dogged detective who refuses to believe that the young woman committed suicide.
Intrigue is added by Ed Skrein and Joely Richardson as brother and sister who have connections to the victim and to a former Serbian warlord (Jan Bijvoet) who is being pursued over crimes during the Balkan conflict.
Byrne and Dormer co-wrote In Darkness and, in my view, are clever enough to have come up with a thriller which is intelligent and has smart twists without confusing its audience.
It bubbles along until hitting a crescendo of a conclusion which brings all of its strands together and answers key questions.
I rarely read reviews before posting mine but felt compelled after seeing the poor score for In Darkness.
It transpires that much of the criticism is over the number of twists (I enjoyed them) and claims of historical inaccuracies about Serbia's part in the Balkan war (My knowledge is clearly not as intimate as the complainants').
All I can say is that it kept me fully engaged while watching it on a lap top on a train journey. In my book, that makes it an effective thriller.

Reasons to watch: Plenty of intriguing twists and turns
Reasons to avoid: Some have complained about historical inaccuracies

Laughs: None
Jumps: One
Vomit: None
Nudity: Yes

Overall rating: 8/10

Director interview - Anthony Byrne: "Well, we learned quickly, but we didn't learn from our mistakes. [Laughs.] Because we didn't have an office or anything, we were in our own home writing, and then it would all kick off because we would disagree about something fundamentally or I would be a pain in the arse and I would challenge Nat, or myself."

The big questions - Are the other senses of blind people really heightened?

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