Another ponderous, convoluted mystery
10 Days of a Curious Man is the latest in the “10 Days” film franchise, and after Good and Bad dropped respectively on the platform, we now curiously have, well this Turkish drama.
If you’re unfamiliar with the franchise, these movies combine crime drama with light wisps of comedy, all wrapped around some form of mystery or ongoing character drama.
There’s a bit of a tongue in cheek level of winking at the audience here, as the drama once more centers on Sadik. Starting as a lawyer, then turning to a private investigator and now (where we find him in this movie) onto a failing writing gig. However, this inevitably brings him back into the PA game.
10 Days of a Curious Man already expects you to have some level of knowledge with these characters before jumping into this so don’t expect much in the way of character development beyond these tick boxes.
Those going in blind can still enjoy this but in terms of character dynamics and ongoing relationships, including interpersonal issues and the slew of returning faces from previous movies, it pretty much demands at least a basic understanding of the puzzle pieces and how they slot together.
The story mostly sticks with Sadik, although both Pinar and Gulhan (a character from the second movie) are also prominent figures with their own stories. The ongoing relationship between Sadik and Pinar is explored in more detail, around the central mystery which centers on a missing person case.
Sadik, fresh off getting his latest manuscript being rejected, hunts around town for a good story. However, he bites off more than he can chew when he stumbles upon the case of an adult influencer called Mutena (Muti by her nickname here). She used to feed kittens every morning until she disappeared without a trace. Could this be linked to a building fire and gangsters sniffing around? All will be revealed!
The story unravels piece by piece, with Sadik heading round and speaking to various players who, in turn, lead him around to different players who then eventually reveal what happened. It’s your typical boots-on-the-ground approach that was prominent in the previous movies and 10 Days of a Curious Man is unnecessarily convoluted in the way it presents its story, with big dollops of exposition delivered in the 1 hour 45 minute run-time.
The tone in this is wildly inconsistent though and while I know that is a staple for these films, in this one it’s particularly noticeable. There’s a good deal of satire and comedy woven around more serious elements, and it’s the unfortunate “Marvel effect” that’s infested this series; when everything’s a joke, there is no tension.
That’s not to say there’s not fun to be had in this film. This definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously, but as I mentioned earlier, it also requires you to have done your homework and watched the other movies to get the most out of this. And watched them recently too.
Compared to the first movie, and the lackluster follow-up, 10 Days of a Curious Man coasts by expecting you to just follow along because you like the characters. While that might fly with some franchises, the 10 Days universe is definitely not one of them!
In the end, this is a disappointing foray back into this world, and there’s very little here to recommend here, even if you like these characters.
Feel free to check out more of our movie reviews here!
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Verdict - 3.5/10
3.5/10