Exhibit A: Grumpy old man. Did he do it?
Perhaps this is stretching a point, since, as a movie, it’d run about 10 hours, but if you like mysteries, and don’t mind reading captions or you speak Dutch, De 12 van Schouwendam (2019) may be right up your alley. A man shows up in a Dutch village who resembles a teenager who disappeared 25 years ago. Soon villagers are wondering what happened to the teen-aged girl who also disappeared at the same time – and our guy happens to have the girl’s jewelry.
And a bump on his head. He doesn’t know where either came from. In fact, he doesn’t even know who he is.
And then the bodies suddenly start piling up, bringing in a detective from the Dutch version of the FBI.
This is structured to let information leak out very slowly, giving the audience plenty of time to chase down all sorts of dead-ends. Just about every character has something going on in the background which feeds into the plot. And even better?
There’s more than one terrible secret hiding behind closed doors. It’s like one of those terminally dysfunctional English country villages which look so idyllic and are really just centers for murder practice.
And the big reveal is a real hoot and a holler.
If you have the patience for it, Recommended.
