Murderous Intent

A Dark, Finely Wrought Mystery of the Highest Caliber!
For some strange reason the very fine Australian/British film LIKE MINDS underwent a name change and hit the US market as MURDEROUS INTENT. The original title is so much more apropos of the story: the alternate title tends to make the audience pass over 'just another death film' category that prevents this excellent little film from appealing to a wide audience. Writer/Director Gregory J. Reed and his talented cast and production staff deserve better as this is a stunning psychological drama well worth seeing.

The setting is an all boys' prep school and among the students is Alex (a very fine young Eddie Redmayne) who happens to be the son of the headmaster (Patrick Malahide) and is a brilliant scholar - if somewhat of a troublemaker at the same time. Into this setting arrives a new student Nigel (an equally fine young Tom Sturridge) who is a darkly quiet, malevolent, bright lad preoccupied with history and necrophilia. The two boys are placed together as roommates, much...

The British And Aussies Do This So Well!
Why is it that only the British and Australians can bring this kind of intense mysterious suspense film to life and breathe into it the essence that carries you along for the ride. The young cast is perfectly placed in their parts. And if Tom Sturridge doesn't ignite some teenage hearts with his looks and become a big star there is no justice...especially since he can act his way out of several paper bags at once. Toni Collete by no means lets the young men surrounding her steal anything away from her screen presence and her performance resonates with the deep abiding fear that begins to grow in the back of her mind as she investigates this murder, if indeed that's what it is. I won't dwell on the plot because it spoils the fun. Eddie Redmayne has to carry the crux of the story and this fine young actor never lets you down. Everybody is spot on including one of my favorite old pros - Patrick Malahide. For suspense that builds until you slip off the edge of your seat...see this...

Not much potential, but what there is is wasted
Gregory J. Read's Like Minds, aka Murderous Intent, is one of those would-be ambitious low-budget psychological thrillers that makes for a better trailer than a film, with forensic psychiatrist Toni Collette trying to discover whether egotistical public schoolboy Eddie Redmayne is really responsible for the shooting of his sociopathic 'best friend' Tom Sturridge. Gestalt and the spectre of unhealthily attracted like minds like Leopold and Loeb and Hindley and Brady are evoked, but the script is really too trite and unfocused to make any dramatic capital out of them, while the references to the Masons, Thomas Becket, the Cathars and the Knights Templar are simultaneously vague and crushingly heavy-handed. Rather than showing the growing compulsion that draws the two boys together, the film oh so flatly tells us with excessive narration as if trying to paper over the cracks in post-production and hide the fact there's no on screen connection between the pair. Depending heavily on only...

Click to Editorial Reviews