We have been here before - the young couple craving peace and quiet away from it all - the entry of a third party disturbing their equilibrium, bringing tension and menace. Two notable examples have been "Knife in the Water" and "Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien". In the former (skilfully directed be the young Roman Polanski and possibly the finest of the genre) the young man the couple give a lift to on the way to their boating holiday is less a figure of menace than the catalyst that lowers their emotional defences. Harry, on the other hand, graduates from mere irritation to pure evil, a crescendo that ensures the film a high place among suspense melodramas. "Dragonfly" lies halfway between the two. Like Harry, Kullman, the intruder, has previously been known to Eddie, the male partner, this time from a period they spent in prison. Eddie has adopted a quiet life with his girlfriend Maria in an idyllic lakeside setting and soon regrets inviting Kullman back to their home after a chance meeting at a filling station. He has after all gone to live in the deep Norwegian countryside to forget his past and start a new life. Kullman, on the other hand, is obsessed with the idea of getting even with the person who contributed towards putting him and Eddie inside and in order to win Eddie round to the revenge idea needs to stay longer rather than being packed off by the couple. the central section of the film deals with the extent he will go to in order to achieve this even to the point of inflicting injury on himself. Kullman is the most morally ambiguous of the third parties in the films I have mentioned. He doesn't quite fulfill our "bad guy" expectations, ending up rather more as a figure of pity. Certainly our final sighting of him, or rather his car, backing away from Eddie and Maria's refuge would suggest capitulation or perhaps even a redemption . By adopting a leisurely lyrical style with sweet music and almost wall-to-wall sunshine, the director, Marius Holst, never quite succeeds in conveying what is in effect a plot with many more possibilities for resonances of unease. Everything is just a little bland and ultimately rather unmemorable. Not that one needs darkness, lightning and thunder to make an effective thriller. I remember a little offering from way back in 1970, "And Soon the Darkness", which sent shivers of fear down me as an unknown psychopathic killer tracked down vulnerable young women during the course of their cycling holiday in France. It all seemed to take place in bright sunlight. I guess the success of a psychological thriller ultimately boils down to the skill with which a director paces his work.
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