THE POSTCARD KILLINGS (2020) - Movie Review

Director: Danis Tanovic
Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Famke Janssen, Cush Jumbo, Joachim Krol, Denis O'Hare, Naomi Battrick, Ruairi O'Connor
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Writer: Tove Alsterdal, Ellen Brown Furman, Liza Marklund, Andrew Stern, Tena Stivicic
Runtime: 104 min
Rated: Not Rated
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

In The Postcard Killings, based on the James Patterson and Liza Marklund #1 New York Times bestselling novel, NY Detective Jacob Kanon’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) world is destroyed when his daughter and son-in-law are brutally murdered in London. Unable to sit idly by and do nothing, Jacob travels to London to get the answers he needs. As he learns of similar heinous murders happening across Europe, each preceded by a postcard sent to a local journalist, Jacob is in a race against time to stop the killings and find justice for his little girl.

Review:

I first watched the "The Postcard Killings" when it premiered on Netflix in 2020. Four years later I rewatched it by mistake, completely forgetting I had seen it before. I ask you, what does that say about the quality of this movie ? And let me tell you, it's not the kind of movie that gets better on a second viewing.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Cush Jumbo and Famke Janssen are talented actors, but they are completely wasted in a movie that starts with an interesting premise, based on the novel of the same name by James Patterson and Liza Marklund, then proceeds to bore us until it goes completely off the rails in a ridiculous third act. The only decent things about this movie are Morgan's lead performance and the cinematography by Salvatore Totino ("The Da Vinci Code", "Cinderella Man", "Everest").

It's a shame too, because we haven't had a bonafide psychologically horrifying serial killer thriller since the days of "Silence of the Lambs" and "Se7en". The twisted murders reminded me a lot of the short-lived "Hannibal" series, but this movie doesn't have the balls, or the brains to reach the level of mindshattering grotesquerie that the show achieved. It's devoid of any depth or suspense, and lifelessly moves from scene to scene.

The filmmakers attempt to hide one of its early twists regarding the serial killer's identity in plain sight, subverting the viewer's expectations, but for me it was pretty obvious what they were hiding, because they were trying too hard. Later twists are decent, but by that point, the movie had turned into an unfocused mess. Morgan acts his heart out, but it's far from enough to save the convoluted plot and thinly written character, while Jumbo is mostly wasted as a supporting character who ends up a damsel in distress. Janssen gets a few good scenes, but doesn't have much screen time, only appearing when she's required to move the plot along.

"The Postcard Killings" is a generic thriller with lofty ambitions but not enough talent to back it up. It's best to avoid this one, and definitely don't do like I did and watch this twice.

SCORE: 5/10