Komm & Sieh (review translated to English from the original German)

 

As a TV actor, Jon Lindstrom appeared primarily in soaps and sitcoms (General Hospital). With his directorial debut, he takes a powerful leap forward in prestige. Together with the two leads, McCaleb Burnett (Daredevil, The Revenant) and Jeff Barry (The Company Men), he wrote and produced a quiet reunion drama, set in Rochester right on Lake Ontario, with a dark twist that matures into a subliminal thriller, with Lindstrom himself as the detective.

 

Even if the title sounds like a teen whodunit and the actors have a primarily theatrical background (see Days and Nights), Lindstrom reaches deep within to portray the reunion of eight longtime friends in their thirties. Their summer weekend in a tasteful lake house is designed to be visually remarkable, the ensemble so believable as real people whose worries recede into the background in the face of a creeping fear.

 

TRAGIC MYSTERY ABOUT SUICIDE, MURDER AND ABUSE.

 

Instead of constructing a standard, whodunit thriller, Lindstrom lays out a tale of tragic suicide, murder and abuse in slow motion until it culminates in a frightening realization. The awareness of unspoken deeds that suffuses and poisons the get-together until friendships break is portrayed simply and thoughtfully, polished and cleanly done, in what would have otherwise have been blown out of proportion in a Hollywood production of such a small-town story.

 

Well-tempered photography of beach locations and architecture starts with Henry (Burnett) walking home from the jail, wondering why his sister did not pick him up - he discovers her hanged in his father's beach house. Why he hides the corpse and later conspires only with Will (Barry) generates a significant amount of understated suspense, a thoughtful, slow-burn progression culminating in a startling conclusion. The reasons for Henry's actions are as plausible as they are horrific in this little indie gem.

 

Sir Real