A pretentious murder mystery with amateur-hour performances
When you have the likes of Shailene Woodley, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Richard Madden in a murder mystery, and is helmed by some talented names who have worked on films such as House of Gucci and Bridge of Spies, you’d think the project is bound to be a hit.
So colour us confused and disappointed as we end up with a dreary, wannabe whodunnit in the form of Killer Heat. This Amazon Prime Original is far from being a killer movie but we are getting ahead of ourselves so let’s start with the plot.
On paper, the premise certainly turns heads as Killer Heat is based on ‘The Jealousy Man’ by Jo Nesbø and casts Richard Madden in the twin roles of Leo and Elias, Shailene Woodley as Penelope, the mysterious wife with a hidden agenda and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Nick Bali, a P.I. who finds himself in a case that is more than what he bargained for.
The movie begins with Leo Vardakis falling to his death during a rock climbing incident and it is chalked off as an accident. However, his sister-in-law, Penelope hires Bali to look into his death as she believes the Vardakis family is covering up his murder. It doesn’t help that the Vardakis own a shipping empire and pretty much runs Crete. Oh, and it seems that Leo had a thing for Penelope and knew her from before she married Elias.
The main cast tries to add nuances to their characters but with the script being as shallow as a kiddy’s pool, their efforts go to waste. Bali is the stereotypical alcoholic former cop with a messy marriage and is now a low-level P.I. based out of Athens. Unfortunately for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this shoddy project is not doing him any favours and fails to show his acting range.
Who would have thought that he would go from the Y2K It boy to graduating from Jared Leto’s school of trying too hard with his weirdly intense performance? As for Shailene Woodley, she is less than memorable but that has more to do with her character than her.
But there are moments where we feel as if she is not sure of who her character should be. The only one who looks like he is having fun is Richard Madden but we expect better from him with his Game Of Thrones co-stars leading critically-acclaimed projects.
Simply put, Killer Heat is a disingenuous movie with everyone play acting as if it is amateur hour. It very much feels like a movie and not in a good way – every moment is calculated which we cannot help but notice, from the sudden Greek folk music emphasizing the location to Bali reiterating everything he finds so we know to pay attention to all the clues. Viewers never get a chance to immerse themselves in the world of Killer Heat because the movie is busy forcing the plot down our throats.
The scenic beauty of Crete does its best to keep us hooked but it fights a losing battle. Especially with the wordy and cheesy dialogue that will have you cringing every time the characters open their mouth. And Gordon-Levitt basically narrates everything, lazy execution if we must say so, as it’s the only thing that keeps the story going since the action in the first half of the movie is negligible.
All in all, Killer Heat has an intriguing story which fails to reach its potential thanks to a weak script with a plot twist that you see coming from a mile away. And if you want to tune in for the cast, just watch their previous stuff as the director does his best to bring out the worst in all of them.
Read More: Killer Heat Ending Explained
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Verdict - 3/10
3/10