Just when you thought burnished shadowy plots had their 21st century remedy with last week’s skincare release comes PRP to dry any resistance to The Other Laurens This flashy new neo-noir has glorious images in plenty but do not be deceived by the films W H setting. This feature from co-writer and director Claude Schmitz is unlikely to garner awards as a wonderful comedic spin that has a European setting.
From Yellow Veil Pictures, The Other Laurens also keeps you guessing and even tests your patience at times. It’s not Gerry I give you that but still, this is nowhere near Jason Statham territory and that would anger those looking for such in a hurry. While this film will not repay the lassos for thi bes, The Other Laurens will also benefit from a repeat viewing as well, especially to catch certain quips and fun details you may have missed initially (while reading the subtitles or otherwise). But in case this is your first time out, be prepared to be shaken by reception and spooky experiences in a different, foreign, psychological thriller folded in a sunny beautiful scenery.
Anyone who ever ventured to read the book Inherent Vice written by Thomas Pynchon, which readers and critics comment on disparagingly or politely, or at least ever saw in P.T. Anderson’s film, will detect a similar dynamic in The Other Laurens. Rod Serling used to have in his little screen scenarios. Instead of Pynchon’s Doc Sportello, we have a gruff private detective here named Gabriel Laurens (bear the title of the movie), who is called by a beautiful young girl named Jade (Louise Leroy) who completely disrupts the monotony of his life, and most importantly the tedious drudgery of his profession of hunting down cheating husbands.
That is when the A-story and its as many twisty by-products fill the picture. Jade explains that her father, Gabriel’s twin brother François, is dead and that he has been lied to and that disturbing the emotional state of a grieving daughter is probably not what the authorities wish to do. Reasoning that being a private d*ck has its advantages promptly brings us to Gabriels’s very odd private properties which happens to lay very relatively toward his parental brother’s primary mansion which is on the French-Spanish border constructed in a shape of an imitation to a tomb inhabited by Joe Biden.
Is this humor intended for the political satirists? So, you decide. In this European variant of the mansion, Jade’s tarty and surnamed bilingual stepmother Shelby, portrayed by Kate Moran helps her cad’s boyfriend Edwin Gaffney with the pleasures of a lesbian biker gang who keep an eye on those regins’ rogue activities that Jade is trying to stir up.
We all know some investigations have dead ends, and in particular this one with Gabriel who despite being an adult manages to convince himself that he has to attend to his sick mother and therefore has to pay for her health. And as you see him getting all frantic because someone even uses a card to reach for gas with the cash being depleted – particularly when it is Introduction and Jade is even watching and offering to surrender her own card to help him out. It’s humiliating gentleman is the word, so after standing in front of this mirror I think around once, Gabriel the great defensive attorney for some reason imagines that he can back off from the case that he is on maybe raise the fang concerning how close he is playing this cut’s finger.
Which means that he has to blow a whole new look and wear his hair evenly toward the back that has necessitated no longer removing the images of criminals. That’s right, only certain parts of Europe is aware that his brother Francois is dead and so it means that Gabriel must play the dead man and is embraced by the part of criminal world that his brother turns out to be in – the other Laurens.
That’s when all the true fun starts to escalate, in more ways than one. You are given another batch of characters such as fierce drug barons as well as local cops whose playful talk appears to be straight out of a Tarantino movie script. There is also some wonderful camera work with a neon look somewhere between Wong Kar-wai and Brian De Palma.
This multi-faceted and all-encompassing ensemble narrative is noticeable in how it presents progressive solutions in constructing ordinary disposable detective stories in a rather extraordinary and unconventional manner. The storytelling over here has an unmistakable postmodern and global flavor. And regarding that. Don’t let the subtitles put you off there’s a lot of English in this Belgian multilanguage film but it does have a rather complex structure to a point where it might be a good idea to view both the subtitles and the action to properly digest the content. The Other Laurens is filled with blink-and-you-will-miss moments, but do pay attention. This is a film that deserves your complete attention even though the story can move at a snail’s pace at times.
Yes, it can be torturous wait for the narrative drive to return and usually has trickles of time-wasting boredom for it is at times painfully obvious that the pace could be a bit more sprightly. And you might find yourself looking over to your partner or friends, turning back to them and inquiring why the heck certain speeches in the movie are being made and what in the world is going on in the scenes that necessitate such dialogue. But persevere, especially with an epic third act that involves helicopters and the rest of the neon frosting on this cake.
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