REPTILE (NETFLIX) (2023)

SYNOPSIS: Tom Nichols is a hardened New England detective, unflinching in his pursuit of a case where nothing is as it seems and it begins to dismantle the illusions in his own life.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Reptile belongs to one of those rare old school detective thrillers that only an actor with the calibre and range of Benicio Del Toro can pull off.

Taking place in a small New England town, the whodunit begins with the grisly murder of a young realtor in a vacant home with the suspects ranging from her successful boyfriend, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake), a creepy stalker named Eli (Michael Pitt) who has a grudge against Will by the way and also her ex, Sam Gifford (Karl Gusman).

In comes Tom Nichols (Toro), a hardened seasoned homicide detective who has an unexplained unfortunate past in the police force in Philadelphia. Tom has a loving wife, Judy Alicia Silverstone) at home and his new boss at the station happens to be Judy’s uncle. There’s plenty of characters in this movie so you need to pay much attention.

Anyway, the slow boiler spends a lot of time with Nichols and his partner, Cleary (Ato Essandoh) as they go door to door sniffing out suspects and going through numerous suspicious numbers and contacts. At the same time, there’s a bit of intentional humour thrown in, Tom seems to be obsessed with a certain kind of kitchen faucet outside his official work, he fancies big SUVs and gets easily jealous of his much younger wife’s flirting with the contractor. At least he is not painted as a boring down-to-earth detective.

Other than that, Reptile remains tense and compelling for the most while. The apprehended killer might not be the killer after all while the drugs involved might have something to do with the murder. Tom on the other hand begins to feel paranoid as the body count grows. The narrative keeps churning out the twists and suspense that it only makes sense to stick with Tom till the explosive ending.

The cinematography, editing and writing are in top form here and it is clear that this murder mystery plays handsomely like a True Detective spinoff or as if Martin Scorsese or David Fincher has a hand in it. Instead, making his feature directing debut is veteran music director Grant Singer and Del Toro also acts as one of the movie’s producers and screenwriter.

Reptile surprisingly is a very satisfying watch even though Timberlake is probably miscast for the part. In conclusion, the less said the better for a movie liked Reptile. Is the title hinting at some cold blooded beings surrounding us? Well, some metaphors are certainly worth checking out.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee