Saying this movie is excellent "for a Czech movie", while true, is a bit of a disservice because it is just great regardless of it's origin. The plot reminds me of Nordic crime novels where you have a missing person mystery that is slowly uncovered with a couple of twists and turns along the way. The camerawork, editing, music and the basic "craft" of the movie are of a great quality, especially for a Czech production. The acting is believable and the plot is thrilling and enticing. The main character, Nina a 15YO high school student accidentally stumbles upon a picture of a young redhead in her fathers mobile. She later finds out that she has since gone missing and goes on an investigation to find the missing girl and thus convince herself of the innocence of her father in the whole thing. The setting is pretty modern with parts of the plot taking place trough online chats, videocalls and such.
A funny anecdote. Me and my Wife watched the movie in the TV, with commercials and such. The plot was actually so gripping that my wife had to give up whatever she was doing and joined me on the couch. Anyway, there was a larger revelation and plot beat, then there came an advertisement with a typical sound clip that is usually played at the end of a movie. We both looked at each other in a bit of disbelief as in... THATs how it ends? OK, a bit uncathartic and there were just too many plot holes, the pieces of the puzzle presented did not fit together. I was actually a bit baffled how they could set up a movie so well, just to finish it so amateurishly. Well, when we about finished discussing, the movie continued. The break was just a normal commercial one, not sure why they used "that" jingle. Anyway, there were about 40 minutes of movie still left and the ending, once it really came, was actually much better. The pieces fit together, leaving me with a feeling that I've watched a competent thriller. As I said, the structure reminded me a lot of Nordic thrillers, which means it is a whodunnit movie with a couple red herrings along the way and a perhaps surprising resolution. Though if you had read a couple Jo Nesbo books or any other detective story, you probably know that the number of characters is always limited in such a story and for the culprit to be surprising, he has to be introduced fairly early and make repeat appearances to stay relevant even if it seems irrelevant to the story. Hopefully that doesn't spoil the plot to anyone. I myself were kind of surprised about the culprit, though during the viewing the reappearance of a character seemed pretty suspicious. So anyway, a modern crime thriller from a czech setting. Go watch it!
