DARK PLACES
DIRECTOR: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
CAST: Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, |Christina Hendricks, Corey Stoll
CLASSIFICATION: PG16 LVD
RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes
RATING: ***
GILLIAN Flynn is fast cultivating a fan club in Hollywood.
First, her novel Gone Girl was adapted for David Fincher’s big screen feature with Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.
Talk about a mindf**k of a movie – but brilliantly so!
Now, another novel has been adapted. And it has Charlize Theron as executive producer, whilst also acting in it.
Dark Places is a heart-rending tale. On the one hand, Libby Day (Theron) has spent her life stewing in bitterness and anger against her brother, Ben. Her testimony against Ben – when she was just a little girl – is what landed him behind bars for 30 years.
This is an unclosed chapter in her life, despite her believing the opposite.
Libby has spent her life being terribly idle and feeling emotionally tormented. Her earnings have come from the sales of her book based on the murder of her mother and two sisters and generous donations from the public.
But the coffers are fast drying up as the memory is fading for her supporters, who are finding new causes to support.
Cash-strapped, she finds herself reluctantly agreeing to meeting a group of amateur investigators who call themselves, “The Kill Club”.
This meeting not only opens old wounds – since they are more sympathetic to Ben and convinced he has been wrongfully convicted – but also it creates room for self-doubt.
As such, Libby meets Ben, played by Stoll, and finds it disconcerting. He is a far cry from the teenager dabbling in satanic culture that she imagined him to be.
The more she looks into the case, she realises how blinded she was to many things.
Her mother was struggling to keep their farm afloat, while Libby’s layabout father harassed her no end. While they were raised in poverty, they also grew up cocooned by their mother’s love.
Dark Places explores sibling rivalry, youthful indiscretions and satanic dalliances, physical abuse and the crippling effect of poverty on a family. On a deeper level, it explores the vulnerability of human beings.
This story could have been more tightly edited. But Gilles Paquet-Brenner clearly preferred to allow it to simmer in the audience’s minds as the narrative snaked its way to a fitting climax.
He certainly gets praise for his juggling act with several different story arcs that eventually dovetail into one.
Some of the characters have a distorted sense of reality, choosing to revel in their debauched world. That brooding menace is offset by the new relationship between Ben and Libby. It is one laden with love and forgiveness.
This psychological thriller takes viewers through a dark and twisted maze. It may be uncomfortable to watch at times, but remains gripping – albeit also truly tragic – at the same time.
If you liked Gone Girl or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you should enjoy this.