MOVIE REVIEW: "Diabolique" (1996)

Synopsis: A wife and a mistress, embittered with the cruel headmaster of a high school, devise a meticulous plan to kill him and hide the evidence. But the situation gets out of control when the subject's body disappears, and a detective begins to suspect that they are guilty of the crime.

The pursuit of revenge tastes very bitter and inevitably has consequences that cannot be measured or controlled. No matter how much pleasure you can get from doing this act (or how much you planned to perform it), getting revenge on someone requires a lot of psychological ability not to succumb and surrender to everyone's pressure when everything is falling apart around you and you become the main victim of your own plan. There is no perfect crime and this is the main lesson you will learn here.

A remake of the French classic directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, the script of this remake had great potential in its pages (in theory, something very interesting... in practice, something very sleepy and uninteresting, but the writers don't think twice before Parade through the projection a pile of clichés that despite their good moments that yield light scenes of tension and suspense (in very isolated episodes and without great connections between them), can not delve into any of the stories presented let alone deliver a decent result for the public.

Everything is very linear (from the beginning to the end of the third act) and there is not much pace in the dynamics proposed by the narrative (the step by step imposed by the narrative is very slow and the lack of more energy in the story makes it more boring). The approach of the movie is very dated (and this is no demerit, after all... the original version is far superior to this one) and this undermines this newer version because no new fact is incorporated into the plot. Of course, those who have never watched the first version will not notice this (and certainly will take better advantage of this new outfit), but for those who have watched it there is no way not to be highly disappointed by the lack of audacity in the story.

Although there are great characters, none of them are deepened the way they should. The superficiality of the facts in the midst of the plot becomes very apparent (and at times may even bother the most demanding viewers) as the projection progresses and the characters all seem to remain in one place, unwilling to get anywhere. There are few elements that really make them be seen as essential figures, and that becomes a big problem as the movie spins around them and their dangerous love triangle full of secrets and lies.

Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani and Chazz Palminteri perform well, but they are sabotaged by their respective characters. There is practically nothing in them that sounds true (except for the first impression each shows: the sexy teacher, the insecure wife, and the misogynist lover... respectively), but this obnoxious flaw is eventually overshadowed by the trio's talent. They (especially Stone and Adjani, who star in awe-inspiring moments together) are responsible for creating layers that camouflage all the precariousness that resides in the characters amid a suspenseful story that really doesn't thrill and doesn't take off completely.

With each new scene, the movie only recycles everything that has been seen before (not only in the original version, but in so many other movies of the same genre) and even though there is the idea of ​​trying to stylize and modernize the story by presenting elements repeated by From a new perspective (a valid but badly thought out idea), this onslaught is like a backfire and an apparent damage that is difficult to fix. As much as there are some memorable patches along the way, none of them are enough to solve all the problems and make the plot really interesting (considering all the power it has).

Jeremiah Chechik's work in the direction of the project is clearly lacking in inspiration, extremely methodical (by the way, full of bad vices that do not help films with this theme) and fail to grasp the essence of the diabolical cloud hanging over the narrative. There are a few moments when he really does something good, because most of his time he wastes pretty much all his cards in bad moves and the fact that the movie doesn't have good technical elements (nothing worth mentioning) just further evidence how forgettable his work is.

The knots left in Diabolique unfortunately can't be untied, and the promise of a good movie is lost in the midst of consistent errors and bad choices along a somewhat dragged projection that tries to aim at something it can capture at all times. to the viewer's attention in a genuine way... But it ends up failing heavily and stumbling over its own arguments (like a house of cards falling at the slightest sign of wind).

MOVIE URL: Diabolique

MY RATING: A (3,5/10)

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