Place of Execution

Saw Place of Execution (thanks, Paul!) It was a British mystery mini-series in three 45-minute parts. The all-told the show is 2 hours and 15 minutes long, so I counted it as a long-ish movie. The film revolves around a decades-old cold-case which we re-live in flashbacks. It follows the investigation of a child murder in a small village called Scarsdale (the cute etymology of this name is discussed even though it is both obvious and merely thematic scene-dressing. To be pleasing, a mystery has to make its explanations obvious and this sometimes leads to hand-tipping and over-explanation.) There is a simultaneous b-story about a investigative journalist and her relationship with her daughter.

The common thread here is parenthood. This figures into the plot in all kinds of thematic ways. The journalist's mother is a minor character, the inspector leading the investigation is given two father-figures. The journalist professes a profound love of the investigator (who she is interviewing) because he reminds her of the father she never had. Parenthood everywhere!

The journalist's reconnection to her daughter (spoiler?) provides the emotional arc of the b-story. The daughter is a Bad Girl who gets arrested and drinks. In the pat way of mysteries, this behaviour is only a cry for attention and soon the mom and she are the best of pals. Mysteries present a world which is satisfyingly sensible. There is no mystery which cannot be cracked by enough persistence and cleverness. I think this is why mysteries are often period pieces. They play on our (incorrect) impression of the past as sensible and orderly.

Anyway, the mysterious murder is of course the main event. The three-episode format leads to a lot cliff-hangers. It has the usual mysterious fake-out suspects and meddlesome bit-characters who wind up being suddenly invaluable. It also has two riots of outraged citizenry and there's a completely unnecessary side-plot where the journalist's boss (??potential father figure??) keeps threatening to take her off the case. It provides fodder for next-time-ons but is a bit tedious.

The camerawork is television-pedestrian. TV has gotten a lot better production values than it used to have in the 90s and such, but apart from a few cool scenes (the murdered girl's father lighting a cigarette in close-up, the clock perfectly framed above a calendar) this is not particularly outstanding stuff. I quite liked the performances. I'm a sucker for melodrama, but this still struck as good acting. The journalist particularly is great, but there's little surprises here and there. The investigator in the past is terrier-like and nerdy-ly intense. The murdered girl's father is magnificently condescending and oily. I dunno. I liked it.

Finally, the film closes on what felt to me like a profound point about truth vs justice. This is slightly incongruous with the rest of the film, but is interesting. I kind of disagree that this is the correct argument to make (I prefer to think of justice vs revenge, but then the film would have had to have ended differently) but it is interesting anyway. So, not a bad film, very workmanlike and polished. There's not a lot to dig into but it's a good way to feel clever and interested which is more than can perhaps be said of a lot of television. (And by the way, for what it's worth: I was able to figure out who dun it way before the reveal!)