L'Heure du crime

At the beginning, this film is a completely standard drama, but it is however made better by the fact that it is from Italy. I actually thought that as far as Italian dramas go, it is rather above standard. But then weird things start to happen. The main character launches a roller-coaster of crazy events and the whole film loses its mysterious atmosphere and becomes a first-degree kitsch. I don’t like the word kitsch, but I cannot think of any other that would capture it better. I had to wonder whether the creators were morons or whether they consider the audience to be morons, because such plot twists are really hard to swallow. Well, after the craziest twist, it all goes to hell and not even the very decent main character can salvage it. (02/02/2013)

To be satisfied with The Double Hour, you have to tune into the right genre. It works much more as a love story and psychological drama than as a thriller, where one of the actors deals with the dilemma between emotion and reason, while the other has to choose between two partners who are suddenly available. Overall impression: 70%. Rational analysis of the situation does not always triumph over human passion and sentiment. I am adding a fourth star for the interesting new actress Xenija Rappoport. (17/03/2016)