THE SILENCE (DAS LETZTE SCHWEIGEN)

The German film THE SILENCE (DAS LETZTE SCHWEIGEN) brings to mind MEMORIES OF MURDER, THE VANISHING and other films where the crime in question, murder, is not quite solved and the viewer is left with a feeling that someone has gotten away with something.

In this film, there is no doubt who the killers are in the first murder.  We see a flashback wherein two friends linked by shared perverse interests, student Timo and groundskeeper Peer, waylay, rape and kill a young girl 23 years in the past.  Actually, it is just Peer.  Timo sits in the car and watches and then once the body is disposed of moves away and starts a new life.

The killing of a new girl in much the same way but without the audience’s knowledge who the killer is brings Timo and Peer back together and also involves the recently retired detective who investigated the first case, his younger former partner still on the force and dealing with the recent death of his wife, and the mother of the first victim as well as the parents of the second victim.  This is as much a narrative told through many different pairs of eyes as it is a detective story.  This makes for a very active easy to follow story that is gripping in its immediacy.

There are plotholes in this story – people know things they shouldn’t actually know nor do they pick up on things happening they should pick up on.  I particularly didn’t like the scene where Timo visits the mother of the first victim and she instinctually knows he was involved in the killing.  Theirs is nothing in the scene or the acting to give this away.

Still, this is a methodical, well shot film and it leads to a very satisfyingly dark ending.  Its commentary on the nature of child molesters and how they are unable to quit their behavior handled very well.