User reviews

At first glance the synopsis might have suggested some similarities with the New Zealand film In My Father's Den, and indie film The Dead Girl. After all, the pace started to pick up when the body of a young woman is found by the lake (hence the title) of a small and quiet Italian town, with the story progressing like an investigative drama that made me wanted to scream Twin Peaks!

In essence, this film by Andrea Molaioli, based upon the novel by Karin Fossum, runs very much like how an investigations is set out to be, full of red herrings, half truths, deceit, together with plenty of doubt, and little leads to plough things forward. For that, I thought it captured the dilemma of an investigator really well, with Toni Servillo in excellent form as Commissario Sanzio, a stoic, no-nonsense police investigator who together with his small team, have to solve this strange case. If I may say so, it puts the audience into the thick of the action really well, with the ABCs of an investigation - Assume nothing, Believe nobody, and Check everything, superbly brought out.

And that started right from the beginning too, as things are not quite they seem, and I was quick to pass judgement on the film, thinking that it was an open and shut case too soon, and too obvious. For those who enjoy a good dose of investigative drama, then this film would be right up your alley. There are frustrations of course when you find yourself drawn into the events of the picture, working toward trying to solve the case before Sanzio does, but each time being thwarted, and going back to the drawing board if you had missed a potential lead, or had been blindsided and failed to pick up clues that the actors give out, akin to playing a game of Cluedo.

But those who don't enjoy wrecking your brains too much, fret not too. The story is rich enough not to dwell too much on the police work, deftly splitting its time to dig into a little more of its central characters so that they flesh out in more three-dimensional terms, rather than being flat. The ensemble cast deserves credit for making their characters believable, and hence all the more difficult when you try to weed out the possible suspects with clear motivations. In particular, we see more of Sanzio's personal life in the film, where he has to deal with a wife suffering from advanced dementia, and a growing teenage daughter (Guilia Michelini) with whom he sometimes fail to see eye to eye with. He may be tip top in the professional front, but on the personal end it does seem like he does require some assistance.

There would be those who might complaint that the ending was too convenient, but trust me having been there and done that, there are occasions when folks know their game is up, and resistance is just plain futile. To me, for personal reasons, this was as accurate a movie as can be that had brought out similar feelings during probes into what had happened, and you know what? A little eclectic techno music on the side does no wrong too!

This film set in a mountain valley, well received at Venice last year and feted in Italy, is a slow burner for sure. It's sometimes a little hard to tell if it still has a pulse. But it does move on well-oiled wheels. It develops its portrait of malaise with steely control. As in any good murder mystery, which is what this is, everybody has secrets to hide. Many are simply repressed. Others are depressed, angry, or impaired. Several are seriously ill. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the story is adopted from a Scandinavian source; the lago (lake) was originally a fjord, and the book was Karin Fossum's bestseller mystery novel Don't Look Back (apologies to Nicolas Roeg), which Sandro Petraglia adapted for the screen in collaboration with directorial debutant Molaioli.

Things start when little six-year-old Marta (Nicole Perrone), who has spent the night with her aunt, is sent off home, but on her way is talked into mounting the van of somebody she knows (in this town, everybody knows everybody else), and her safe trip home is derailed. Later, Marta's mother (Maria Sole Mansutti) frantic with worry, and a search that extends beyond the town is begun. The culprit is Mario (Franco Ravera), who's crazy. Harmless, some say. Till he's not, says another.

Though this may seem more a study of provincial angst than a police procedural, the most angst-ridden and the center of the story is a former homicide cop, Inspector Sanzio (well played by noted director and theater man Toni Servillo). He's newly arrived in these parts (Carnia, in the Friuli), but his instincts were immediately awakened by Marta's disappearance. Than Anna Nadal (Alessia Piovan) is found dead by the side of the lake, arranged in a peaceful position and with a coat over her naked body.

Anna has a father, Davide Nadal (Marco Baliani), who loved her excessively; his videos of her have an almost voyeuristic quality. The father of Mario (Omero Antonutti), hated Anna because she had thin legs, and he saw her often running up in the mountains. She was a gifted hockey player, but has recently quit and only runs. The autopsy reveals surprising things about Anna. She has a boyfriend, Alfredo (Nello Mascia), who goes into a funk and stops reporting to work. He's found trying to erase Anna's CD-Roms and with other incriminating evidence. There's another man who says Anna had a crush on him. Meanwhile we get to know the stony-faced but technically impeccable Inspector Sanzio further. His wife is (Anna Bonaiuto) elsewhere and he is hiding secrets about her from his daughter Francesca (Giulia Michelini), which whom he has an uneasy relationship This may seem revealing too much, but when we know this, we still know little; the essential information is yet to come along with the confession of the murderer. That scene is a little too collegial and flat for anyone with a taste for noir. But this is never noir (black); it's gray, gray and misty. And in this "existential" approach to murder—though this is hardly new—it's not so important Whodunit as what's motivating everyone, and how much lies hidden in a seemingly quiet, well-behaved town, the turbulence below the placid surface of the lake.

Andrea Molaioli has worked with directors Nanni Moretti, Carlo Mazzacurati, and Daniele Lucchetti. The Girl by the Lake/La ragazza del lago swept the Italian Oscars with ten Davide di Donatello awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Actor (Servillo) and Best Screenplay. Shown at the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema series at Lincoln Center June 2008.

'The Girl By The Lake" is a good mystery movie with several suspects and a detective with an insinuating style that gradually arrests your attention. It defies you to pick the murderer and keeps its secret until nearly the last scene, and is gorgeously photographed. The suspects backgrounds and possible motives are uncovered like layers of an onion, so towards the end of the picture you feel you are nowhere closer to a solution than when it started. In this respect it is a masterful screenplay and with an intelligent script. No complaints here, right?

Well, one small one. Why so much talking? Most of us appreciate good screen writing, but this picture had so much of it. Would have been nice to see some action or at least some scenes with some energy, but it's like reading a letter - all the words and sentences are in one tone of voice, with no emotional highs or lows to be found. The movie is saved from a lower rating by the efforts of Toni Servillo as the Police Inspector, a nondescript sort who showed a great deal of charisma and brought his character to life. I do not agree with a contributor who felt the support cast was amateurish as they were competent down to the least character.

This picture is worth a good look and is better than the website contributors give it credit for. The climax was not thrilling, but probably the way many murder cases end in the real world, matter-of-fact and not with guns blazing like in the movies.

This was a delightful detective story about a murder mystery set in a charming and picturesque European mountain village. I liked the subtlety of various scenes and how it was filmed in a unique and interesting style. The actors are all good in this movie and come across as natural and realistic characters who live in an isolated and tight knit community.

There are many different things going on as a veteran detective investigates the mystery and uncovers secrets of the towns people. The film is slow moving however, and requires patience and close attention for enjoyment of the plot, otherwise I could see how this movie's quirky style might be unappealing to the mainstream. The ending is unfortunately abrupt and disappointing, and the mystery wraps up in a mundane and uninteresting manner. Despite this, the movie for most if its running time is well worth watching for those looking for an offbeat and interesting whodunit.

''La Ragazza Del Lago'' is an enjoyable movie with high production values and an engaging story based on the second book in the Konrad Sejer series, written by the Norwegian author Karin Fossum. Since this is an Italian production, Inspector Sejer is renamed as Commissario Sanzio, played by one of the best contemporary European actors, Toni Servillo who portrays the protagonist as having the character traits that Fossum have attributed to him in the novels i.e. a solemn, pessimistic middle-aged man living alone, who nevertheless has a profound insight in the field of psychology, something that proves to be helpful in every murder investigation.The story is not an original or particularly exciting, it involves the murder of a young girl living in a small, quiet village where everybody seems to have their own secrets. Sanzio will have to uncover the truth that looms behind the villagers secrecy and finally arrest the perpetrator. The film is well-shot as it manages to capture the sinister qualities of the countryside's peace and silence which, in Fossum's books, acts as a facade for a variety of human misconduct and depravity. Though conventional, the plotline is interesting enough for the viewer to watch the film and attempt to guess the guilty party, something that I didn't manage to do correctly by the way. ''La Ragazza Del Lago'' will appeal mainly to the crime fiction fans who prefer the slow-burning, character oriented mystery and not to those who expect lots of action and special effects to a crime film (e.g. Hollywood productions). My precise rating would be closer to 3,2-3,3/5.

I recently saw this at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival. This is director Andrea Molaioli debut film and he comes out of the gate as a first time director with a very good film. The screenplay by Molaioli and Sandro Petraglia was adapted from the novel Don't Look Back by Norwegian novelist Karin Fossum and had been made into a mini series on Norwegian television in 2002. In this Italian setting, a young girl named Anna is found dead on the shore of a rural mountain lake, lying nude on her side with her clothes neatly arranged by her. Intitial suspects are the girl's boyfriend and a mentally slow man who lives nearby with his wheelchair bound elderly father and who first discovered the body and put his coat over it. A seasoned criminal investigator from the south, Inspector Giovani Sanzio (Toni Servillo), is called in to help local authorities to help solve the death. Once Sanzio enters the picture he is virtually in every scene and Servillo is excellent in the role. Director Molaioli gets the most from a fine supporting cast and this who-done-it takes several turns that keeps your interest peaked from beginning to end. Great cinematography from veteran photographer Ramiro Civita. I would give this an 8.0 out of 10 and recommend it.

A beautiful victim in a beautiful setting starts us off on an interesting who-dun-it, with suspects emerging by the handful for our world-weary detective to evaluate. The characters are all pretty interesting, each with a believable idiosyncrasy and one or two with a plausible motive. Flashbacks to the pretty victim's life and digressions about the detective's own less- than-happy family serve to keep some tension going, too.

But the resolution is a disappointment, both in terms of who-dun-it and the manner in which the suspect is discovered. Endings are never more important than in mysteries – a weak one makes us feel guilty for killing time. This "Girl" does just that.

Good colors, the colors of real mystery ... murder and Agata Christie detective character after its tail ... solid acting as well, however, everything else is very bad. The story is full of holes. It doesn't give strong motives to anyone to be a murderer, and in specific situation, everyone could have the motive: people who hated and loved the victim, even you become suspect yourself. We have no tension at all during the whole movie as we have no leads or misleads so the movie becomes interesting as newspaper article on committed murder. Then, no connection at all between the suspects themselves, as between the suspects and the other characters - no plot development. Also, the movie gives impression as the camera is tagged to the back of the detective since he is somehow in almost every scene of the movie. The worst is very pale and amateur finish of the film, pretty disappointing. Should be done much more with all that director had at his disposal. 2 out of 10.

I'm glad a movie was filmed in the region where I live! Even though we have always been almost forget by the rest of Italy, our place offers a breathtaking variety of landscapes perfect for filming. More and more directors are realizing that, and other movies are being filmed here at the present time. I found this movie kind of slow though,and I didn't like too much the fact that the main character spoke with a southern accent as well others in the movie speaking with accents other than the Fraulein (spoken in the province of Udine). You could tell it was a production from Rome. Next time make it more "local"! Anyway I liked the plot.

I saw the film yesterday at the local Filmpodium that is sponsored by the Town of Zurich and I was touched by its quietness and restrained atmosphere and the complex story line. It shows a seemingly intact little village in a seemingly untouched mountain area. It portrays a small world filled with angst and hidden feelings. The actors are excellent and the beautiful women and the Italian language contrast with the reduced setting. The music is artful and very decent though most of the time dialog and stillness dominate the film. It is the perfect film for an audience that prefers Alain Tanner, Francis Reusser, Claude Goretta to commercial film makers.

Everything in this movie – from the production value to the acting - is underwhelming .

The result is something that resembles a bad television episode of a crime series, definitely not movie. The story is simple and narrated in a very straight forward way. An average episode of Law and Order SVU has many more smart twists and turns than this production.

The camera work and the cinematography are just alright. The casting and the direction of the actors are very poor. The result, as in too many Italian movies lately, is that actors are left alone to do what they can, showing enormous differences in their performances. You have Tony Servillo and Valeria Golino doing their job, but most of the rest of the cast is borderline amateur.

This movie greatly embodies the little ambitions that too often have been lately seen in Italian Cinema.

Nice movie, with many takes outdoors shot on location in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region. To add even more authenticity, some of the scenes that are indoors are inside a meeting room with large posters on the wall of what seems to be photographs of the great earthquake in Friuli of 1976, suggesting that the municipal building in where the characters meet is a building built or restored after that earthquake.

There are nice scenes of mountain stark scenery, with clean tree branches.

Yes, the main investigator speaks with an accent of southern Italy, but then, many in law enforcement are from the south of Italy, so to me, that added to the authenticity.

An atmosphere which recalls Georges Simenon but the plot itself is closer to Agatha Christie's whodunit.Although a little MTV quality,the movie is often filmed on location and the mountain landscapes are wonderful.

What puzzles the viewer is that almost all the characters are suffering ,including the cop,who 's got a wife in a mental hospital (probably Alzheimer's disease).Directing is effective if a little remote;but ,this is crucial in this kind of investigation,all the characters are interesting and the cast rise to the occasion.

A girl was killed on the banks of a lake and many people from the village are suspects.If you like detective stories ,this movie was made for you.

Despite the acting of a few most of the movie looks like a fiction. The story was interesting enough but the flow is very very slow and some of the dialogs are pretty much irritating (I'm Italian, people do not speak like that). The photography and the camera work is all right but nothing more than a television film, pity because the location and the setting deserved more. Toni Servillo is always a good actor and lead the film easily but often he has to deal with average if not amateur actors. He did a great job with his character making it believable as well as most of the lead roles, all the others were bad, pretty much. 30 minutes shorter and it could have been a good TV film. On the other hand the story failed. Up to a certain point it was still smart, then it just felt into some obvious and predictable conclusion, which seemed to be just the end they could finally make but I think they could have resolute the movie differently, giving to it a better twist. This film should give inspiration to young Italian filmmakers because despite all other countries it seems like in Italy it's quite easy to make movie, don't need much for the producers, camera and photography can be as simple as possible, no fancy shooting and the movie can be shot in two weeks maybe. It's done with little money and it shows.