It's not easy to do a good movie. And it's even more ambitious and difficult for a director to escape a given genre. Unfortunately Nicolas Boukhrief failed in both exercises.
On paper Cortex looks promising. In fact the scenario seems in the same time strong interesting and original with potentially great characters to be developed
A retired cop name Charles Boyer who suffers from Alzheimer goes in a retirement clinic but starts to suspect murders. Who would believe him, is he delirious?
Unfortunately none of the promises were fulfilled. André Dussollier is a great actors, he portrays quite well this lost retired cop but never manages to be convincing as an Alzheimer. Nicolas Boukrhrief chooses to film none pertinent scenes and never give the supporting cast a chance to develop their characters. As a result they all appear as filler instead of backbone. Even the role of Charles Boyer's son is underdeveloped.
We witness a succession of emotionless scenes exploring myriads of themes. Nicolas Boukhrief talks about many subjects as a way to escape the Thriller genre. Retirement, Alzheimer, Father & Son relationship, Professional Relationship in a medical environment etc all those themes are touched upon. The problem is none of those themes are explored in depth; they are all superficially thrown in.
The result is a thriller that doesn't thrill. A too fast ending raps up the main intrigue without providing the audience with a sense of progression and closure. And from an Alzheimer point of view the ending is at the very least naive and unrealistic.
I salute Nicolas Boukhrief 's Audacity. I am no film director and I am incapable of making a film. But I do prefer the characters to drive a story rather than the story to drive the characters. It's more difficult but it's the only way to escape a genre.
On paper Cortex looks promising. In fact the scenario seems in the same time strong interesting and original with potentially great characters to be developed
A retired cop name Charles Boyer who suffers from Alzheimer goes in a retirement clinic but starts to suspect murders. Who would believe him, is he delirious?
Unfortunately none of the promises were fulfilled. André Dussollier is a great actors, he portrays quite well this lost retired cop but never manages to be convincing as an Alzheimer. Nicolas Boukrhrief chooses to film none pertinent scenes and never give the supporting cast a chance to develop their characters. As a result they all appear as filler instead of backbone. Even the role of Charles Boyer's son is underdeveloped.
We witness a succession of emotionless scenes exploring myriads of themes. Nicolas Boukhrief talks about many subjects as a way to escape the Thriller genre. Retirement, Alzheimer, Father & Son relationship, Professional Relationship in a medical environment etc all those themes are touched upon. The problem is none of those themes are explored in depth; they are all superficially thrown in.
The result is a thriller that doesn't thrill. A too fast ending raps up the main intrigue without providing the audience with a sense of progression and closure. And from an Alzheimer point of view the ending is at the very least naive and unrealistic.
I salute Nicolas Boukhrief 's Audacity. I am no film director and I am incapable of making a film. But I do prefer the characters to drive a story rather than the story to drive the characters. It's more difficult but it's the only way to escape a genre.