Everyone has an actor that they make an effort to watch everything that they produce, through thick and thin. For me, one of those actors is Jim Carrey. Many of his films were my favourite as a child and he is also one of the finer dramatic actors to have come out of the 90’s (The Truman Show stands as one of the all-time favourites). He is also an actor who is not very prolific this day and age, so when I catch wind of a Carrey movie on the horizon, I tend to track it down, even if the buzz isn’t, shall we say, enthusiastic.
That is very much the case with Dark Crimes, a film which has been sat on the shelf since 2016, already having had a muted release in the US. If that paints a grim picture, it’s nowhere near as grim as the film itself.
Set in Krakow, Carrey plays disgraced detective Tadek, who seeks redemption through investigating an old case, which is eerily similar to a new book by crime-author Kozlow (Martin Csokas). As Tadek delves deeper into the case, he begins to step into a world that is darker beyond anything he could have imagined.
It is very hard to recommend Dark Crimes to anyone who isn’t as equally curious as to what Carrey is getting up to. It is a pretty miserable experience from beginning to end, terribly colour-graded to drain all life and sense of dynamic lighting from the proceedings. Admittedly, it is very much striving to construct an atmosphere that is devoid of hope, but there’s no getting over how amateur the cinematography is, often looking like a student project, with the editing equally as amateurish.
The script is exceptionally clunky as well, with characters delivering dumps of exposition left right and centre. There’s a great deal of telling and not showing. We are often told that Tadek shouldn’t let this case change who he is, but we’re never given a sense of who he actually is beyond a glum, cold and clinical detective. There doesn’t seem to be much for him to lose, particularly considering we meet him at a low-point of his life (as many characters keep telling us). His character is either unresponsive to the things that a re said to him, stoically contemplating in mirrors or lashing out in moments of pent up rage. He is incredibly inconsistent in his actions, with the film or Carrey’s never landing on what kind of person they want this Detective to be. It also doesn’t help that Carrey can’t quite nail the Polish accent, often strangely turning into Irish at very points.
Carrey’s performance isn’t the worst thing about this affair however, it is simply that is such a miserable watch, filled with many images of uncomfortable sexual violence in service of a thoroughly generic thriller that simply does not have the smarts or artistry to actually put those images towards something that feels worthwhile in any shape or form. It only becomes increasingly uncomfortable as it builds to a depressing finale.
It’s very rare for a film to pretty much have no redeeming features about it, but Dark Crimes is essentially impossible to recommend beyond those who have a morbid curiosity in just how that nasty and uncomfortable the whole affair feels, and once again for those who can’t help but check out Carrey’s work. It is one that, much like Tadek’s case, best left on the shelf to collect dust where it can do no one any harm.
Dark Crimes is released on UK DVD on 9th July 2018.
