w Delta z
Director: Tom Shankland
Writer: Clive Bradley
Cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Melissa George, Ashley Walters, Tom Hardy, Selma Blair, Sally Hawkins

Plot:
Detective Eddie Argo (Stellan Skarsgård) is investigating a series of murders with his new partner Helen Westcott (Melissa George). The bodies all have parts of an equation carved into their skin. They all seem to lead back to a horrific crime that happened a few years ago and that Eddie was deeply involved with. But what do the killings have to do with the equation?

w Delta z is a rather idiosyncratic film. It feels like a philosophical thought experiment in movie form. For long stretches that is interesting, but sometimes the film part suffers for it. But it’s always thought-provoking.

The film is smart. It knows that it’s smart and it’s very proud of the fact. Sometimes that means that the plot is overshadowed by all of that smartness and gets a bit lost. A little more focus on the “movie” part wouldn’t have hurt. Especially because the insights the film provides, while intelligent, aren’t unheard of or that revolutionary.

But that’s not necessary to make the film interesting and engaging. It outlines the problem and then makes a passionate case for a stance on it. While I don’t agree with it a hundred percent, it was fascinating to go along with it.

The cast is excellent (in fact, I was quite surprised about who showed up there) but since the film’s focus is mostly on the concept, the characters suffer for it much like the plot. They’re all rather stereotypical and onedimensional. Especially Eddie was a little too flat to really inspire much confidence in him as a character. Which made it difficult for me to accept the ending.

They obviously didn’t have a huge budget for the film and the cheap look was a little distracting at times. And the violence, especially the violence in the flashback, seemed a little too much. I like a bloodbath as much as the next person but it was out of place here. Nevertheless it was a good watch.

Summarizing: Not perfect but worth it.