A New York detective investigates the death of his daughter who was murdered while on her honeymoon in London; he recruits the help of a Scandinavian journalist when other couples throughout Europe suffer a similar fate.
I’ve long been a fan of Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Even before he made a big splash on “The Walking Dead” as one of the series’ best villains, Negan, I had enjoyed his work as an actor. From his recurring role as Denny Duquette on “Grey’s Anatomy” to “The Losers,” “Texas Killing Fields,” and “Watchmen,” he oozes onscreen charisma and it is almost impossible to take your eyes off him. He excels at playing the good guy or the bad guy and does so admirably, a talent not many actors possess.
In “The Postcard Killings,” he plays New York detective Jacob Kanon, who is called to London when his young daughter and her new husband, who had been honeymooning in Europe, are found dead. But not just murdered, mutilated, with body parts and limbs missing. While he is London, he receives news that other couples in various countries around Europe, France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, have all met with similar fates. He hooks up with a Scandinavian journalist, Dessie Lombard (Cush Jumbo) after she receives a picture postcard from the killers, their now customary trademark, announcing their arrival and which precedes their next bloody crime scene.
With the help of a German police officer, Inspector Bublitz (Joachim Król), they quickly realize that each postcard, along with its cryptic message, always ends with an ellipsis, indicating there is more to come but when they receive another postcard and notice there is no ellipsis, just a period, Jacob fears this could be their last murder and that they could quietly escape into the night and never be found. With time running out, Jacob and Dessie must pool all their resources in the hopes of catching the killers and preventing one last grisly act.
I loved that the setting of the movie transpired in Europe instead of New York or Chicago, cities that during the winter can be brutal and unforgiving but seeing Europe in a thriller such as “The Postcard Killings,” offers a new perspective of the land, overall, and proves that as beautiful as Europe can be, especially during the summertime, it can also be savage and ruthless, much like the killers herein. The film is constantly blanketed in dreary grey, giving off a continuous subdued, barren feeling, devoid of any luminescence. The movie is kept interesting by the lead performances but where it falls down is in its anti-climactic finale. While watching the film, it feels like we’re heading toward a showdown between Jacob and the killers, which is what we get, but after all is said and done, the movie ends with a whimper instead of a bang. The ending could have gone in so many different directions but instead, it felt like the writers of the book that the film is based on, Liza Marklund and James Patterson, arrived at the end and ran out of ideas and slapped on a conventional, mundane conclusion and then wiped their hands of it.
There is a big twist about halfway through the movie that reveals the identity of the killers and it does so in a compelling and unpredictable manner. You are led to believe they are two specific people but then it does an about-face and shocks you with its declaration. This was good, it is what kept me intrigued the whole way through, right up until its lackluster ending. It leaves it somewhat open for a sequel, should the film do well but I wouldn’t go down that road, there isn’t much left that could fill up an entire story but then again, this is Hollywood, and if they could make three feature-length films from “The Hobbit,” a book that comprises of roughly 300 pages, then I’m sure they could write another story in this chapter. I just hope they don’t.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD May 19th
