Review: The Postcard Killings

A grief-stricken New York detective (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) travels to London to unofficially look into the murder and mutilation of his honeymooning daughter (Her severed hands are yet to be located). Before long it becomes apparent that a serial killer is at work all across Europe, posing the brutalised bodies to resemble famous artworks. Cush Jumbo plays a journalist in Sweden who helps Morgan out. Naomi Battrick and Ruairi O’Connor play a likeable young American couple on a European holiday who keep running into the same uncouth-looking, persistent fellow (Dylan Devonald Smith) wherever they go (at one point he introduces the couple to his equally oddball wife). Famke Janssen (a last minute replacement for Connie Nielsen) plays Morgan’s estranged wife and the mother of the deceased, whilst Steven Mackintosh plays a London detective who wants Morgan to bugger off home.

 

It’s pretty obvious early on that this 2020 serial killer film from director Danis Tanovic (“No Man’s Land”, “Triage”) wants to be a mixture between a James Patterson/Alex Cross murder-mystery and a Scandinavian thriller (think “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”). So it’s little surprise perhaps that the film is an adaptation of a novel collaboration between Mr. Patterson and Swedish crime author Liza Marklund. What is a bit surprising is that a film with five (!) credited screenwriters has turned out to be pretty decent. It never quite manages to get past a soft recommendation at best, but while there are some annoying flaws it still proves very watchable.

 

With these sorts of serial killer mysteries, the story – and particularly the twists and eventual reveal – are usually crucial. I really liked that what this killer/killers was doing here in addition to being grisly and weird, was pretty original. I won’t deny that some of the film’s numerous twists are a bit predictable, but some are less so, and really interesting. That said, the biggest and best twist is probably one of the earliest ones that the film never manages to top, which is a shame. It’s a doozy, and although I’ve read that some people found it obvious from the beginning, I have to say it was entirely unexpected to me. Other twists are hit and miss, but that one really impressed me. Anyway, for a film that I had pretty low expectations for going in, this one turned out alright I guess.

 

Chief among the assets here are rock-solid performances by a well-cast Jeffrey Dean Morgan and a pretty remarkable Naomi Battrick. Morgan brings a nice latter day Liam Neeson meets Mel Gibson-ish brooding, verging on seething with anger that really works here. I don’t know what he had to do in order to convey grief so heavily and effectively, but he sure does convince as a man whose child has fallen prey to the worst of ‘humanity’. There’s also some nice, wholly unsympathetic work by Denis O’Hare too, as an absolute prick of a father (to put it mildly). Meanwhile, the scenes featuring Battrick, Ruairi O’Connor, and dishevelled-looking Dylan Devonald Smith are alternately unsettling and strangely funny, but very effective. Unfortunately, the other performances here are very underwhelming and at times quite amateurish. Famke Janssen in particular literally phones in a lot of her rather uninspired performance. I also think the director sees himself as a fancy David Fincher visual stylist…and yeah, he’s definitely not. It’s incredibly frustrating to see a filmmaker refusing to get out of the way of the story he’s trying to tell on screen. The screenplay is by Andrew Stern (“Disconnect” with Jason Bateman), Ellen Furman (“The Infiltrator” with Bryan Cranston), Tove Alsterdal, Tena Stivicic (“The World’s Greatest Monster”), and Marklund herself.

 

A wholly watchable, if lumpy murder-mystery/serial killer film with an interesting story and plenty of twists. However, irritating direction and several dud supporting performances hold it back a bit. On the plus side it has top performances by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Naomi Battrick, who help put this one over the line. Worth a look certainly, but it could’ve been even better.

 

Rating: B-