A private detective is forced to face the ghosts of his past when his niece asks him to investigate her father’s death.
This Belgian Neo-Noir by Claude Schmitz is a throwback to the private dick films of the 1970s. Like Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” or Wim Wenders’ “The American Friend,” it is uniquely oddball – and its nightscapes are neon-lit, reminiscent of Robby Müller’s photography on the latter film. In “The Other Laurens,” Schmitz and his director of photography, Florian Berutti, shoot conversations, night drives, and the coastal landscape with a subdued, beautiful, and occasionally kaleidoscopic style.
The leads are well-rounded, and the supporting cast has quite a few weird and nasty villains. Featuring biker gangs, corrupt cops, drug traffickers, and a suspect sporting a crucifix on his front tooth – they all are memorable people. And like Altman’s remarkable idiosyncratic take on Raymond Chandler’s noir novels, many figures are more than capable of doing horrible things.
In “The Other Laurens,” Gabriel (Olivier Rabourdin) is a private detective who, with the help of his niece Jade (Louise Leroy), begins investigating the death of her father, who happens to be his twin brother Francois. Mistaken identity and doppelgängers are a cornerstone of noir storytelling, and Schmitz, who co-wrote the screenplay with Kostia Testut, hit these genre targets while carving out their own narrative. Gabriel is scruffy and out of shape, and Jade is blonde and petite, wearing crop tops and ’90s jewelry made from silver. Initially, Gabriel dismisses Jade, who has just made the trek from her coastal town of Perpignan, France, to Brussels. He says, “I don’t investigate after the Police have finished.” But after incurring some debts, he needs material help to take the case. Jade’s stepmother Shelby (Kate Moran) is an American, unhappy with her husband’s death being reopened. Francois was seemingly the opposite of Gabriel: fit, owned an opulent villa, and was a family man. But in reality, Francois had also taken on a large amount of debt, which was imposed upon Shelby as the executor of his estate.
Shelby is possibly a femme fatale since she is seen conspiring with her motorcycle gang, who constantly surveil Jade. Her Black brother, a retired Marine, shows up to tell some war stories, but are they siblings – or something else? As the clues, as well as various suspects, begin to pile up, family secrets are also slowly revealed. With an engrossing and funny screenplay, these elements lead to an unexpected yet satisfying conclusion. Touching on themes of imperialism, surveillance, economic crises, and unexpected tragedies that life has in store – “The Other Laurens” has much to say.
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