Film reviews

In both mood and style, this masterpiece of a film is remarkably reminiscent of the Gabriel Knight series. Unlike many other similar films, it does not lack in any respect the romantic, adventurous and mysterious atmosphere of the game.

The plot seems like a variant of the script for The Sins of Fathers (Gabriel Knight 1). The main character is Harry Angel (performed by Mickey Rourke), an intelligent, handsome and slightly arrogant private investigator, who has just been given a new case. A man who calls himself Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro, brilliant as ever) wants him to track down lost singer Johnny Favourite. A simple case, it might seem – but it takes unexpected and bizarre twists when everyone encountered by Harry in his investigations of the missing Johnny ends up dying one after the other. Spoiler As Harry goes deeper in the investigation, he reveals the horrifying truth about his client and his own identity – the truth that leads him into the supernatural world of voodoo black magic…

The complex story is told gradually, slowly adding missing pieces to the multi-layered puzzle, toying with the viewer’s attempts to find out the solution in details and character-connections. The cast is excellent; the actors fit into the mystical nature of the characters they perform with perfect aptness. Beautiful, gloomy scenes and very distinctive personae add atmosphere to the overall ambience of this noir-occult-gothic-thriller combination. But what is mostly overwhelming in the film is this intangible, unnamed "it" that makes one watch it over and over again, and be ever freshly astonished at the genius of the story’s writer (renowned for such pictures as Midnight Express, Mississippi Burning and The Wall).

Gabriel Knight fans will be amazed at the familiar themes and motifs, and other viewers not familiar with Gabriel Knight will simply revel in the richness of what this film has to offer.