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Sunday, February 20, 2011

Death In Love (2009)

A monstrous psychotic (Jacqueline Bisset), who survived the concentration camps by seducing a Nazi doctor (who did medical experiments on Jews) into becoming his love slave passes on her emotional and mental instabilities to her two grown sons. One (Josh Lucas) is unable to have a healthy, lasting relationship with a woman, the other (Lukas Haas) is a self mutilating agoraphobic. As Lucas becomes involved in a homoerotic relationship with a co-worker (Adam Brody), Bisset's lovers start getting murdered by a serial killer. The movie is as crazy as it sounds. The director Boaz Yakin is borderline exploitative. The scenes of torture and experimentation on Jews in the concentration camps are so graphic and bloody, I had to turn away. The untalented Josh Lucas is so bad and one begins to develop a perverse sympathy for him, the actor not his character. There's lots of talk, talk, talk but it's not the way real people talk, it's psychobabble! That being said, the film is fascinating but I'm not sure in a good way. It's harder to shake off than much better films so I suppose that says something. Bisset is superb here, she's never done anything like this before and it's a brave performance and Haas is very good too so it's a pity it's not for a better film. I'm not sure what to make of the rock song sung in Yiddish over the end title credits. Let me just say I've never seen anything like it and leave it at that.

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