Reviews

I didn't like this movie; it was way too long, the editing was terrible (how many times can we see Nicholson fishing), and the overly present music badly chosen. I found Nicholson good though. Without going through the whole movie, many question were left unanswered (***SPOILERS***: 1) The dramatic début of the movie, with the 5 minute-long discussion that ends up with Nicholson's Pledge, seem to indicate that the movie will be about a cop trying to find a child-killer. The next part of the movie, a ten-minute-long interview (way too long, by the way) with a first suspect seem to follow in that direction also. 2) The scene with the child-therapist seem to add a twist when a chain-smoking, sweating Nicholson looks like the above-mentionned killer. Key to this scene is when the therapist asks him if he is still sexually active. Why this question ? Probably because she suspects his obsession with young little girls being raped is unusual. Since she is a therapist, we should pay attention to this scene. (Unless the movie doesn't really have a storyline, which is probable). 3) Nicholson falling in love with a woman which is not particularly pretty, but has a cute little blonde girl of almost 8 years old. During the movie, I felt as if Nicholson fell in love with the mother because of her daughter. A scene in particular, at the beginning of their relationship, highly insinuates that Nicholson is flirting with the little girl. (But maybe this scene is only to cause confusion). 4) Nicholson is seen drinking at the beginning of the movie, and the officer says he is a drunk. Is he ? We did not see him drinking during the whole movie (except for the beginning and the end). 5) We see Nicholson looking suspiciously at just about anybody. We get the idea that the officer suffers from an obsessive paranoia of some sort. 6) The whole story about a giant, a large man offering candy to attract little girls is probably a story that nourishes Nicholson's own fantasy world. Nicholson attaches so much importance on that whole narrative, that we understand that he is obsessed by big man seducing little girls with chocolate. 7) He litteraly sets up a fantasy scene where his little blonde girl is attacked by the real killer. No parent in the world would ever do such a crazy thing, unless, of course, he finally wants to see it happen.

All these put together, the movie seems to suggest that officer Black (Nicholson) is a pedophile who gets a libidinal kick out of pursuing cases involving little blonde girls being raped. He can then indulge in his fantasy without actually doing it (highly suspicious is here the scene where he steals from another police officer a picture of a 8 year old victim). Black then falls in love with the killer's next victim (which he probably chose because she fits the victims profile, but that part of the movie is still really far fetched, talk about luck), gets a kick at watching all day long this cute little potential victim, trying to imagine all the big men that could sexually molest her, and then goes crazy when the fantasy scene doesn't occur. If this conclusion is true, they probably diluted it to make it acceptable by adding a non-sensical beginning (abd all these fishing shots). If I'm all wrong, then the movie doesn't really make sense.

This movie has no story, but I guess that it was the whole idea ; to show raw violence to shock the audience. The problem (or rather, one of the problems), it really is not shocking. SPOILER ; of course you're a little surprise when you realize that the kid is dead (American producers would never allow that), but then the whole movie is so freaking unbelievable that the loving wife might as well find the remote control and wake up Georgie jr. Movies similar to this have been done so many times (more successfuly) that you really expect more from an old theme. I usually like movies with slow developments, like movies from Tarkovsky, but some of the scenes where so unnecessarily long that after a while you start to wonder if the VCR didn't get on Pause by itself. I give it a 5 for the effort, but I really don't recommend it to anyone.

After reading a comment here, on IMDb, I was expecting a film Noir. Now, I don't exactly know why that person thought that this was Noir, but really, I can't find any element in the whole movie that could fit it in that category. I felt like I was like a French, cheap version of Requiem for a dream. Except for the fact that, in Déjà Mort, the main male caracter is a total idiot that seem only capable of doing one thing : ruining other people's life and/or kill them. SPOILER : the worst part of it all is the fact that he is just about the only one who doesn't die at the end, something I had been expecting...