While Tanovic dwells somewhat gratuitously on the grisly end results of these serial slayings, the actual violence happens off-screen, and given the nature of its story, the film seems oddly disinterested in emphasizing action, fear or thrills. But this dynamic is not what it appears, giving “ The Postcard Killings” its only effective plot twist at about the 45-minute mark. Meanwhile, another fresh-faced young American pair (Naomi Battrick, Ruairi O’Connor) are backpacking the Continent, seemingly vulnerable to sketchy strangers like slightly older, heavily tattooed Pieter (Dylan Devonald-Smith), met on a train, and the girlfriend who later joins him (Sallie Harmsen as Nienke). They eventually suss that the murders are “staged” as references to various famous artworks, sending a message intended to be received by a wealthy albeit incarcerated art collector (Denis O’Hare) whom the equally dogged Valerie questions in the States. In Sweden, he forms a sort of sleuthing partnership with one such scribe, expat American Dessie (Cush Jumbo), as well as the local police.
Each crime is preceded by a cryptic postcard mailed to a journalist in the relevant city. Vowing to find the killer or killers himself, Jacob stays on, pestering the British investigators, then traveling to Munich, Stockholm and beyond as more young couples are victimized. It’s getting a token stateside theatrical release on 10 screens March 13, simultaneous with on-demand launch. Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan as an NYPD detective tracking his own daughter’s serial killers across Europe, this uninspired detour into impersonally commercial English-language terrain for Bosnian director Danis Tanovic (an Oscar winner for 2001’s “No Man’s Land”) should provide Patterson’s fans and undemanding miscellaneous viewers with an acceptably slick if not-particularly-suspenseful crime potboiler for home viewing.
But there’s nothing very right about the British-American co-production, either. There have been a lot of adaptations (primarily for TV) of megaselling author James Patterson’s pulpy fictions, none particularly memorable, with the possible exception of hit 1997 thriller “Kiss the Girls.” But then, his books seldom aim for much more than disposable entertainment, so it’s apt enough that their screen versions should follow suit.īy that standard, there’s nothing really wrong with “ The Postcard Killings,” which derives from a one-shot 2010 collaboration with Swedish crime novelist Liza Marklund that hit No.
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