The Cold Light of Day

This was a fairly interesting story but I didn't like the lead actor, Richard Grant, who played "Victor Marek." It's about a British cop ("Marek") trying to trap a sick child killer, and at the same time his mind is on a woman and her kid. He winds up using them as bait to get the killer. In doing so, he lost me.

He wasn't a "good guy," himself and certainly not a likable person that we are supposed to root for in the film. Even Richard Grant's looks in here (tell me that wasn't eyeliner on him) were annoying.

The best part of the film was the cinematography. This was a nice-looking film on VHS and it's too bad it isn't available on DVD. I wouldn't buy it, but I might rent it to catch the good photography.

This is a fair remake of a grand old movie, "It Happened in Broad Daylight" (1958) or "Es geschah am hellichten Tag" in German.

The story is almost the same, but the movie is much more modern, of course. It has some Hollywood-like cliches that don't suit the original.

If you like detective stories of that kind you might enjoy it, but if you understand just a few words in German I'd always suggest to watch the original old movie with German cult-actor Heinz Ruehmann.

In my opinion, this is one of the better movies to come out of Europe in the past decade. The film's power lies not, like so many of its Hollywood counterparts, in bombastic displays of action and violence, but rather in a well balanced mix of superb character development and a thoughtful but well-paced plotline. The film functions on many levels and probes deeper into the minds of its characters than almost any other film I've seen.

Not having seen the original (In Broad Daylight, if I'm not mistaken), I viewed this film without preexisting expectations and loved it. It's very suspenseful without using formulaic devices and had a really rich pace and rhythm. The characters are very real and three-dimensional and Richard E. Grant gives a wonderful performance (as always, IMHO). I tend to enjoy films that feature character actors in leading roles. They don't have the off-screen persona that tends to overwhelm character portrayal as sometimes happens with conventional leading men and ladies. Sorry about the digression. If you like suspense-thrillers that are intense without displaying a great deal of frenzied action, you'll like this movie.

A recently finished cop sets out to catch a child killer, using a very dubios and dangerous means.

I rather enjoyed this, it's a good solid thriller, with some good characters, and really fine acting.

Richard E Grant is excellent, as always as the troubled Detective, Simon Cadell is excellent as the criminal, I had no idea he appeared in films such as this, having been so used to watching him in Hi-de-hi.

There are a few plot holes, I don't think anyone could argue with that, would he really have taken such a drastic course of action, in such a secluded place. I'm not too sure, but it does add to the drama.

The ending is very good, and dramatic.

Enjoyable, 7/10.