Criminal comes with the promise of breathing some life into the police procedural along with an interesting format whereby three episodes are devoted to cases in four different countries. It's an intriguing start, and with a decent pedigree of actors the United Kingdom section looked good enough to tempt me to press play. All of the action takes place in the interrogation room, the corridor outside it or in the viewing room next door, all designed in an idiosyncratic way that seems... unlikely, certainly for a British police station. Nevertheless, it starts out tightly with (a very downbeat and understated) David Tennant playing a doctor accused of raping and killing his fourteen-year-old stepdaughter. He's determined, on his solicitor's advice, to answer 'no comment' to every question put to him and we see that the interrogators have only a limited time to charge him.
It sounds exciting, and for a while it is; it's tense and reasonably well-acted, but at the end of the episode it felt undercooked. There was something missing. It was as if someone tried to come up with a show based entirely on the interrogation scenes in Line of Duty but missed out on any of the context and technique that make those so compelling. Nicholas Pinnock is always good value with a stare that could bore a hole in concrete, but the different elements never quite come together in a satisfying way.
I'm not religious, but I enjoyed the movie. Even though I got really pissed at the God character sometimes, he made up for it.
RANT not about the movie:
I'm pretty sick and tired of people saying "one of the worst movies I've ever seen" again and again, I can't go on a comment section on ANY movie without someone having that attitude, and I don't even believe it's one of the worst they've seen, most of the time they just disliked it. And it's okay to dislike something, I dislike some movies too. BUT to go as far, example on this film, this "Durkslag", saying it's religious "crap" for "brainwashed" people, I really pity them. He must be so fun at parties (not). If he feel the need, if anyone feel the need to insult movies and at the same time, people who watch them, they really do have my pity, and I hope that they one day learn that they do not have to be so cruel. I don't believe in God, but I believe what comes around, goes around. If you're online acting like a dick, you'll be sure to look twice before crossing any roads any time soon. You, me, everyone, we will get what we deserve, what we put into this life. If you're gonna give hatred, that is what you'll recieve. Just a heads up. ARK, one act of random kindness, saving the world one step at a time. That is all folks. Have a most deserving evening, everyone.
