The Postcard Killings

New York police detective Jacob Kanon (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his wife Valerie (Famke Janssen) arrive in Europe to retrieve their daughter's body after she was murdered by a serial killer. The killer poses the bodies to mimic great works of art. Jacob stays behind to track down the killer himself. Dessie Lombard (Cush Jumbo) is a reporter who starts writing about Jacob and the killer. Meanwhile, hulking Pieter Holl introduces himself to an American couple (Naomi Battrick, Ruairi O'Connor) traveling on an European train.

This is a rather bland murder procedural. It feels like a weak British TV killer procedural. There is a functional twist but there is nothing else after that. The tension is never raised and this just falls flat.

This film wasn't that bad, but with very little rework, could've been much better.

The main issue was the amateur screenplay put together by the novel's author, Liza Marklund, and newb writer Andrew Stern. Had a seasoned screenwriter proofread and edited the script, this film would've been impressive.

The 104 min runtime dragged on with terribly slow pacing. This film should've had the pacing sped up and/or the writing cut down to about 85-90 mins max.

Directing by Danis Tanovic was adequate, except for the annoying fade-ins to out-of-focus dizzying shots. The cinematography was decent however, and the score quite fitting. Casting and performances were on point, particularly from Morgan.

This film isn't much of a who-done-it, as we find out underwhelmingly half way through, but more of an international chase, of which also ended as underwhelming, with a silly final scene.

Still, not as bad as the critics say it is. I still enjoyed it, and it's a generous 7/10 from me.

For the amount of hate in these reviews, I just wanted to say it I thought it was interesting, entertaining & kept my interest. I agree not these actors best work, or a great film, but damn it's an okay thriller. It is what it is. Just let it do it's thing.

Just so much of it didn't gel. Morgan's acting for one. There are some unbelievably hammy scenes. Did he not learn to summon an authentic sense memory to trigger a convincing cry?

As a whole, the movie also could have been more cinematic. The scale seems small for being set in half-a-dozen countries. And that doesn't so the adaptation justice.

A lot of this comes across as a decent episode of a procedural show. That is the overall feel. The execution could have been so much better since the source material and story appear to have some interesting elements.

Serial killers will always be fodder for movies, good and bad. It's not worth quoting examples, anyone reading this has probably seen at least ten movies about serial killers. This is one more, based on original Scandinavian material that I've never seen, but I'd like to see it, and I'll try to find it. Honestly, I hope it's better than the movie I just saw...

The film is not bad. Don't get me wrong. It has a good base premise: murders that imitate famous works of art all over Europe, with the father of one of the victims desperately trying to catch the culprit. But it's not at all original, it does the same things that we're tired of seeing in established films, and it doesn't manage to go beyond the usual recipe to offer us something that makes it stand out. And there is a huge problem that partially ruins the film: we discover the identity of those who are killing people too soon and, from there, it is only worth watching the film to see how the police will hunt down their target.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a very solid and competent protagonist, able to commit himself and give the character the consistency and anguish that it demands. Undoubtedly, the actor's performance is a bonus in the film. Despite being heavily criticized, I think Famke Janssen wasn't that bad. She does have depressing moments and sometimes goes overboard, but she gives us a relatively satisfying job, and doesn't have many opportunities to really fail. Joachim Krol seems to be out of place and lost. Naomi Battrick is quite good, taking into account that she is not a frontline actress and has handled a character who demands a certain charisma and attitude; Ruairi O'Connor, honestly, cannot say he is happy, he erases himself even in scenes where he is more visible.

Technically, it's a regular film without great merits, but it doesn't fail too much either: the European settings and landscapes, always pleasant no matter how commonplace they may be, are joined by standard cinematography and ordinary work on the costumes. Some well-crafted effects and a lukewarm soundtrack make for a cohesive and functional, if forgettable, whole.