Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
The rivalry between the manipulative boss of an advertising agency and her talented protégée escalates from stealing credit to public humiliation to murder.
Brian De Palma's 2013 erotic thriller remake of 'Love Crime' has his characteristic visual flair — split-screen sequences, voyeuristic camerawork, and operatic staging — but the material feels thin and the execution uneven. Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace bring commitment but are hamstrung by a script that prioritizes style over psychological depth. The plot twists feel contrived rather than genuinely surprising, and the dream-sequence finale muddles rather than elevates. Cinematography is the strongest suit, bearing De Palma's unmistakable baroque sensibility, though even that feels like a lesser echo of his earlier work. Novelty gets a modest bump for De Palma's singular visual language even in a remake context, but the derivative source and generic workplace-thriller beats keep it from scoring higher.