A series of murders has shaken the community to the point where people believe that only a legendary creature from dark times - the mythical so-called Golem - must be responsible.
THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM
(Juan Carlos Medina, 2016)
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Story:
This film a pretty classic whodunit thriller with some amazing performances. Bill Nighy steals every scene, he is incredible in this. They also mix up things a little bit and go for a pretty unconventional way of storytelling. Sadly, this doesn't really work... I wasn't really into the mystery, the structure made it a little boring. They also threw like 237 themens in here... homophobia, sexism, racism... Heck, even Karl Marx is an actual character in this film! The story itself is decent, but they way they tell it and flood it with different subthemes just turnes it into a incoherent film.
Style:
I love pretty much every film set in the victorian london. The costumes, the sets... This film is beautiful. While the music was doing it's job, it was quite forgettable, but the camerawork is really good! The mise-en-scene was beautiful, this film is dripping from atmosphere! The music hall was a nice contrast to the dark world outside. So, not groundbreaking stuff here, but still decent and very atmospheric!
Entertainment:
I was genuinely amazed by the beautiful setting, which might be a personal thing cuz I love the era it's set in. Sadly, the murder mystery itself was mediocre, I was never really in “investigation mode“. The way they presented the suspects was kinda boring and never made me wonder who did it. Some restructuring would have helped a lot to make the whole thing a little more exciting. It was still a solid mystery with characters and subplots interesting enough, so I never got bored.
Conclusion:
Again: Potential! This film takes on sexism in the 19th century decently and in a pretty smart way... But is flooding it with tons of other subtopics. I get, that they added historical figures like Marx to ground the mystery into a “real“ world... But if they would have focused on a few suspects and flesh them out more, this could have been a really smart and atmospheric murder mystery... But they kinda wasted it's potential. The great production design, a few amazing performances and decent take on sexism are enough to keep this film at a solid score. But just not really memorable.
