It
is modern day Germany, not Dirty Harry’s 1970s San Francisco, but apparently the
progressive judges and parole boards are just the same. Twenty years ago,
Jessica and Sophie’s parents were murdered while they hid in terror. Now, the
killers have been released from prison, because of rehabilitation or whatever.
However, the dysfunctional sisters continued to feel the impact of the crimes
every day of their lives. Sophie is finally ready to move on, but Jessica is
not. In fact, she is determined to involve her sister in her bid for vengeance,
even if she has to do it from beyond the grave in Oliver Kienle’s Four Hands (trailer here), which opens today
in Los Angeles.
As
the older sibling, Jessica shielded Sophie from the sight of the parents’
murder, but she saw it all. That helps explain her more aggressive and erratic
behavior. When informed of the murderers’ release, she goes into a full manic
cycle, pulling Sophie out of an important audition, so they can plan their
attack. Wanting none of it, Sophie tries to flee, but their jostling leads to a
fatal traffic accident. Sophie wakes up in the hospital, whereas Jessica went
straight to the morgue.
At
least Sophie should be able to live her own life now—but not so fast. Rather
disturbingly, she starts blacking out, during which time she acts quite
suspiciously. She threatens the nice doctor who helped her after the accident
and clearly starts stalking the murderers. Then Sophie starts picking up the
voice messages Jessica leaves for her.
Throughout
most of the film, Kienle leaves plenty of interpretive room for viewers whether
the vengeful Jessica is a supernatural or psychological phenomenon. Mostly, Four Hands is a rather intriguing
thriller that never crosses over into horror, but should still appeal to the
aesthetic sensibilities of horror fans (although there are no one-to-one
parallels, it certainly feels like Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers was an influence). Kienle (the creator and head writer
of the terrific German television show Bad Banks) is definitely playing with sister/twin/doppelganger motifs, but the
film also directly explores the long-term emotional and psychological impact of
violent crime, in a serious and thoughtful way.
Friederike
Becht is impressively fierce as Jessica, especially during the scenes in which
she appears to physically take over Sophie’s body. Again, for most of the film,
it is unclear whether this is an actual manifestation of the uncanny or an
expressively symbolic strategy of Kienle. Conversely, Frida-Lovisa Hamann often
seems problematically bland and passive as Sophie, but that is arguably required
of a character who has been dominated so long by a strong but unstable
personality like Jessica. Christopher Letkowski is also believably grounded and
appropriately freaked out as Martin, the doctor who haltingly pursues a
relationship with Sophie.
There
are some terrific settings in Four Hands
(like the sisters’ isolated manor and a modernist concert hall), but Kienle
never uses them to imitate Hitchcock or the Giallo masters. This is his film
not a shallow homage. Recommended with enthusiasm, Four Hands opens today (9/14) in LA, at the Laemmle Music Hall.