The Girl By The Lake (2007/IFC/MPI DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

Going down the usual abduction thriller road, Andrea Molaioli’s The Girl By The Lake (2007) starts to look like a child-in-jeopardy film as it seems a very young girl (who should not be walking alone anywhere in the first place, the idiots!) gets picked up and goes missing.  Just when we think we are going to get another bad, exploitive film, it turns and an older dead woman is found nearly naked and dead by that lake of the title.

 

This Italian film then turns into a police procedural with no point and certainly not one that is worth your 96 minutes.  Valeria Golino (Rain Man, Immortal Beloved) shows up as a possible victim of the circumstance, but is she a killer?  Toni Servillo (so good in Il Divo and Gomorrah, both reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) is the investigator and he is not bad in the role, but the Sandro Petraglia (1987’s Julia & Julia) screenplay (based on Karin Fossom’s novel) is all over the place and the result is a film that is all over the place distracting the audience while they try and solve the mystery instead of actually constructing one.  I was disappointed and only the most curious should bother seeing this one.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot by Director of Photography Ramiro Civita (Lost Embrace) in 35mm and the film has a decent look throughout, though a Blu-ray or 35mm presentation would more likely bring out the best in this shoot.  Here, it is a bit soft at times.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is dialogue-based and not bad, but don’t expect much in the way of a soundfield.  The only extra is a trailer.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo