Review of Like Minds

Introduction

Gestalt. A meeting of like minds. This happens all the time in life, it`s how we couple, although those minds tend to drift in most cases as differences become apparent and interests vary. Sometimes the meeting of like minds is not for the common good and can have tragic consequences.

When two psychopathic personalities meet, the consequences are deadly and trails of carnage and destruction follow. Leopold and Loeb. Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. Fred and Rosemary West. No one really knows what brought these people together and made them willing accomplices to acts that the average person wouldn`t have the compunction to commit in cold blood, although plenty pretend to know the answers.

Like Minds, an Australian/UK co-production, attempts to bring fresh perspective to this frankly, and thankfully, rare occurrence. The film opens with the death of a young boy, found cradled in the arms of another. Detective Martin McKenzie (Richard Roxburgh) wants to charge the survivor with murder but needs to know more, so he calls in forensic psychologist Sally Rowe (Toni Collette). She attempts to get under his rather blasé skin to find out what happens, which is…

Alex Forbes (Eddie Redmayne) is a bit of a boy genius, blithely sailing through academic life in a public school where his father is the headmaster and generally upsetting his teachers by arguing in class (and he`s always right, you know…). Then in comes weird wunderkind Nigel Colby (Tom Sturridge), who has an unhealthy obsession with dissecting just about anything he can lay his hands on, including passing birdlife. Alex is forced to share his room with Nigel, who latches onto Alex, believing them to be connected through direct lineage from the Knights Templar.

Nigel`s mission is for Alex to recognise their destiny and will apparently do whatever it takes to ensure that the deadly duo can fulfil their potential.

Video

Nice oppressive picture with muted colour palette. It`s supposed to be a cold and oppressive world that these characters inhabit, and regardless of the other flaws, it does.

Audio

Comes with a standard 5.1 Surround Sound track, but the majority of the sound comes from the front speakers. The soundtrack is a nice mix of orchestral and choral, but seems a little too clichéd for yet another public school film.

Well sub-titled but with errors, such as `quiet` instead of `quite`.

Features

Commentary with director and composer - not that great in all honesty.

Making Of - fairly short and standard EPK.

Deleted and Extended Scenes - only two and the film is better, for what it`s worth, without them

Conclusion

I have to say, before anything else, that Sturridge and Redmayne have a very good chemistry on-screen. It`s just a shame that this entire film is pap. I`m not really sure what the director (who wrote the screenplay) had in mind when deciding to share his vision with the general public, but we`re left with a frankly bland thriller (and I hesitate to use that descriptor) with a dash of Da Vinci Code folklore.

Not really sure why any of the motivations had to revolve around the Knights Templar or why both boys parents (and the investigating policeman) had to be in a Masonic lodge of some kind, but I`m betting that Gregory J. Read had not long read Dan Brown`s bestseller on holiday or something. It`s a bit of a mess that`s not very clear and just doesn`t explain anything. Each element is quickly introduced, referred to once only and then left without further exploration or explanation.

The cover art places Toni Collette quite prominently on the cover, but in truth she`s not even in the film that much and doesn`t really do a lot. Same goes for Richard Roxburgh. They`re both quality actors, but can`t really do a lot with the lack lustre script presented to them. Except swear a lot and quite pointlessly, which makes me think that it wasn`t in the script but just the pair adlibbing their frustrations with the film. Neither puts in the kind of performance you would expect.

This film could have had something interesting to say, maybe it did in Read`s mind originally. Just a shame it didn`t all come out in the script. Characters come and go. People are murdered for apparently little reason except something unexplained in the bigger picture. The murder of Nigel`s parents. The murder of schoolgirl Susan Mueller, who is supposed to be Alex`s first love (even though they`ve just met). And finally the murder or suicide of Nigel. What? They`re supposed to be like minds and linked via some kind of gestalt and he just dies. What kind of destiny is that? It makes the referencing of the psychopaths I mentioned in the introduction a bit laughable, but they`re clearly referenced in the film during Toni Collette`s limited screentime.

More than a little confusing and could have been so much better. Just because you don`t understand it, doesn`t make it beyond your intellectual capabilities. Sometimes it`s just rubbish. And it is.