L'uomo in parete

My favorite part is when two policemen appear as if straight out of Pinter-- authoritative, confusing, and scary. For a while, unsettlingly, one of them speaks from outside the frame while the face of the other reflects the tenor of the words. We can identify with the protagonist's confusion, because it's the confusion of Everyman in a situation of weakness.

Already, though, the protagonist is not just a tabula rasa but has begun to exhibit behavior that limits the audience's identification with her. Maybe for that reason the script would have worked better as a stage play. Certainly the lead actress, Tamar Alkin, has proved herself on the stage as well as on the screen, and the challenges that the film takes upon itself-- a small set, and scene- long camera shots-- are typical of the stage.

Some scenes are built around visitors less interesting than the policeman, and they don't manage to strike sparks. But when the mystery that runs through the movie is solved, the solution is a good one, sufficiently foreshadowed and sufficiently hard to guess, without being artificially neat.