LIKE MINDS

UK/Australia, 2007, 114 minutes, Colour.
Eddie Redmayne, Tom Sturridge, Toni Collette, Richard Roxburgh, Patrick Malahide.
Directed by Gregory J. Read.

While the film was written and produced in Australia, with some location work in England, the story it tells is very British. It is a stylish film visually, is well written and performed, with a rather eerie feel about it.

The film opens with some rowdy students misbehaving on a train. Then the transition to the rather upper class school with its prayers, assemblies, uniforms and rituals – and expectations – and some puzzle about who these students are.

When one of them is killed and another taken into custody, the plot becomes intriguing, especially when the student is grilled by the local police and then interviewed by a forensic psychologist. We move from the interviews to flashbacks to developments in the present, so we are asked to keep our wits about us.

One of the interesting features of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood was the theory that neither of the two killers could have carried out the grim murders by himself. Rather, the two formed one personality capable of the violence. This is also a theme of the notorious Leopold-Loeb? murders in the 1920s, which the psychologist reads about (dramatised in Hitchcock’s Rope as well as in Compulsion and Swoon). This film has a reference to Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train where a mysterious man offers to carry out a murder in exchange for another.

Eddie Redmayne (Matt Damon’s son in The Good Shepherd) is excellent as the 17 year old accused of murder. He has a harsh back story, especially when it emerges that the Headmaster (Patrick Malahide at his most public school rigid) who has corrected him during assembly is his father. His father imposes a roommate on him (Tom Sturridge), an ethereally sinister lad who is expert at animal taxidermy! The two clash, then bond although it is a bizarre relationship, ending with the death of the roommate.

The plot is even more complex when history, the history of the Church and the Knights Templar is introduced and parallels of the Cathar theology are made with the present – and the Masonic-like association to which wealthy members of the town’s society belong to. (The history is about as accurate as that of The Da Vinci Code but it is part of the plot rather than being claimed as actual history.)

The two boys act very well and are matched by Toni Collette as the psychologist who is required to be professional, allergic to the detective (Richard Roxburgh) and made to go searching for clues in a darkened cellar with a fierce dog lurking. She acquits herself well in all sequences.

There are plot twists and turns, more unexpected deaths, as well as psychological twists, to make for an interesting and offbeat thriller.

1.The impact of the film? As thriller, mystery? Psychological drama? Educational background? The Hitchcock allusions, The Leopold-Loeb? Murders, Primal Fear, The Da Vinci Code – combination of these elements?

2.The Australian authorship, locations, for a British story? The British winter locations? The cast, the atmosphere, the score?

3.The opening and the reckless behaviour on the train, the death, the boys, getting off? At school? The small group, the three friends, the leadership, the fat boy and his trying to prove himself, the Asian boy and his pulling out? Eddie Redmayne as the leader? Their going to the assembly, being rebuked by their principal?

4.The headmaster in himself, the conduct of the assembly, the rituals, the meals and permission to leave, the ticking off? The principles (?? or principals? – not obvious) of the school? The wealthy students, their parents? The nature of the Masonic-like club? The revelation that Eddie Redmayne was the headmaster’s son? His dead mother? The headmaster trying to bring him up, making demands on him, study, seeing him in his room, the surly attitude and rebellion of the son, the primness of the father? The decision to give him a roommate?

5.The arrest, the narrative of the boy’s death, Eddie Redmayne’s reaction, his age, surliness, the interview by the detective, his rough methods, Eddie Redmayne and his unwillingness to communicate? Sending in Sally? Her talk, explanations of herself, her shrewdness, his equal shrewdness, leading her on, the interactions, the gradual revelation of himself, the story, her belief in him? The flashbacks inserted in their discussions?

6.Sally in herself, at home, the past relationship with the detective, the clashes with him? Her forensic psychology work? Her wanting to meet the headmaster, the chance meeting, his abruptness? Her continuing the investigation? Her puzzle about the club? About the victim’s parents? The books, the manuscripts, the dead animals, the vivisection, the taxidermy? Her going to the house, searching in the cellar, the dark, the dog, her fears? Her finding the book – and its contributing to her understanding?

7.The victim, in himself, age, experience, his parents, his difficulties at school? With animals, the birds, the taxidermy in the room? Eddie Redmayne and his hostile attitudes towards him, the sinister atmosphere? The view of the victim via Eddie Redmayne? In class, history, the professor, the discussion about the Cathars, their theories, the church, its persecution, the Knights Templar? The special Knights Templar? The emblems, the club, the Masonic-style league? The special characters and their destiny? The clashes of the two boys, the dining room, the bonds, the tests? The victim’s death? The girl, in the play, Eddie Redmayne and the date, her death, the gruesome treatment of her body?

8.Eddie Redmayne, the discipline by his father, having to work for the theatre group, the murdering of Becket – and his interpretation, the Knights Templar, church and state? The girl and her performance, her friends? Their coming to the boys and their being rejected? The other boys and their jealousy, the gang, their taking the girl and interrogating her? The date, the cinema, his wanting to leave the dining room, the cinema showing Strangers on a Train? The relevance of the interaction between the two characters in Hitchcock’s film, doing a murder for each other? Robert Walker’s mania, Farley Granger’s seeming innocence? The funeral of the girl, the play going on, the speeches, the performance?

9.The interrogation of the suspects, their alibis, the train, the fat boy, his not being able to hold on, his death?

10.The disappearance of the victim’s parents? The book, the details, the drawings, the mystical and pseudo-mystical contents?

11.The Knights Templar, the issues of destiny, heretical views, special characters, destiny and chosen?

12.The theme of innocence, innocent surfaces and guilty depths?

13.Eddie Redmayne, people believing him, the finding of the bodies, everything pointing towards the victim and his madness? The issue of the gun, the confrontation between the two boys, the victim pulling the trigger?

14.Sally, the information, Eddie Redmayne leaving? The realisation that she had been played for a fool, manipulated? The fact of his guilt – and reinterpreting all his stories in the light of what really happened?

15.The title, the theme of like minds, the two boys forming one personality – but who was dominant? Who was insane? Violence? Mad destiny?