This movie disturbed me. Just finished it now, I'm left with a feeling of unease, probably even at myself. I feel like disgusted. I don't' know maybe the movie is successful to the extent to which I feel kind of close to the serial killer. Not approving what he does, but the really deep inside perspective is what puts you alongside the serial killer. And what is successful is the well done mix of elements that puts the viewer (or at least me) close to Chris. So, a story only focused on the serial killer would have prompted harsher condemnations of him. But here we have first of all a new perspective on the serial killer: victim and torturer. And this is explained while she looks on internet for information about serial killer and also at the end, as it is written that serial killers are people suffering of a huge pain and killing is the only way to them to express this pain. Beyond this new perspective (serial killers are always depicted as the evil on mass-media), her presence. So, first of all, her physical appearance: very beautiful but of a normal beauty, baby-face and like an angel (also his face is extremely fresh and innocent, as he smiles - she says to he's got a teenager smile). So, she further smooth up the presence of the serial killer. Plus her love, plus the great complicity between the two. And then also their wish of freedom, problems with the adult world generally, and both of them with their parents. Then and above all, her understanding of him, so this gives the viewer the new perspective, that one of pain. So, I'm 27 years old, nearly their age, and I am undertaking a route of personal freedom, emancipation and self realisation, so the movie had a grab on me for these reasons. And that is why the figure of the serial killer doesn't pop up as violently as if it was all focused on it. A viewer with characteristics as I do, recognizes him/herself in them, in their wish of love, in their love, actually pure and untouched by society, family and so on. But beyond this, the drama of the serial killer stays behind and eventually comes out with all its strenght. So, the two are eventually naked, out of their wish of freedom, their love, their parental Independence. He hasn't got anymore his self-confidence, so you can see him crying (even if he said during the movie already that he had fear), and she too. So the big message the movie aims at transmitting (or one of them) is that serial killers can be watched from another perspective, for how hard this can reasonably and comprehensively be, which is not a justification, but a mere understanding. And maybe a better understanding can lead us to help them, and in turn help the entire humanity. So what was lying behind the whole movie (his sickness, fear and pain) exploded at the end of the movie, with his arrest and further exploded with her face crying. The face of somebody who understood (even if her understanding made her guilty too, but understanding doesn't entail agreeing, as I said before) the behind-situation of a serial killer, crying for him. And we have to look at this from her perspective, without judging if she was sick as well (probably she was) or not. Just the perspective offered by somebody crying for a serial killer. Something totally new, that stays at the opposite than the usual, short-term, limited hate for serial killers.
Review of American Translation
