The Card Player
(aka; Il Cartaio)
(2004)
review by Suspiriorium

After having had a rather rough time of it during the 90s from both critics & his fans, Dario Argento’s 2000 effort Nonhosonno/Sleepless was generally held to b something of a return to form. Whilst I personally don’t find the film to be any superior to the horribly under-rated pair of Trauma & Stendhal, it was certainly a step up from the decidedly patchy (but interesting) Phantom of the Opera, probably Argento’s weakest film to date. The big question on all Argentophiles lips is whether or not Il Cartaio is another step up towards the level of his greatest work, or a step back toward Phantom-esque derision.

Rome, the present day. A demented serial killer is kidnapping young women, & tying them to a chair in front of a webcam. He then challenges the police to a game of Internet Poker – if the police win, the girl goes free. If he wins, the police have to watch him kill her. Heading up the investigation is Inspector Anna Mari (Stefania Rocca), but when a British girl is killed, rough Irish policeman John Brennan (Liam Cunningham) is sent over to assist.

Whilst Nonhosonno thrived on its extended horror set pieces & overt violence levels, Il Cartaio plays these elements down to rely on its rather more traditional whodunit giallo plotline. The set pieces are relatively brief, & virtually all the violence occurs off-screen, the only gore being examinations of already dead victims. Ironically, this leaves a film which feels more like a made for TV thriller than Argento’s own 70s TV show Door into Darkness. I can’t speak for all Argento fans, but when sitting to watch one of his films, I must confess that it’s those delirious set pieces & violence that I’m looking forward to rather more than a teasing, intricate & well-thought out plot. Which wouldn’t really too much of a problem when it comes to Il Cartaio, except that its scripting is no better than any other Argento film, & indeed rather weaker than his best films. If having the killer easy to spot early on in Opera doesn’t actually hurt the enjoyment of the film, when there’s less going on elsewhere its rather more of a problem that when the character who turns out to be the killer first appears, he might as well be wearing a bright pink “Psycho Killer!” T-shirt. The typically weak English dub doesn’t help the rather predictable schematics of the narrative, since whilst the two leads (using their own voices) are excellent, all the supporting characters are comically hamstrung with some cheesy dialogue.

Despite all these problems however, Il Cartaio is not a total write-off. Argento still knows a thing or two about engineering tension & suspense, & the film is always compelling, particularly during its poker face-offs. Indeed, whilst the inclusion of an Internet angle has been something of a curse for many horror films, this aspect of Il Cartaio is relatively well handled & reasonably plausible. Whilst the set pieces are short & rather under-nourished, there are still some strong sequences, notably a sequence with Rocca at home alone (pleasingly reminiscent of the suspense work in the Animal trilogy), a chase through underground tunnels, & the quite captivatingly shot discovery of the killer’s lair. The climax in particular is deliriously offbeat, & whilst it doesn’t entirely work it’s certainly amusingly endearing. In fact, throughout the film there are plenty of little Argento flourishes to please admirers of his work. There are the slightly obscure clues we’ve come to expect (a particular seed in the victim’s bodies, an odd noise during one of the killings), & wilfully quirky supporting characters – this time including an opera-singing, dancing morgue attendant, and a slightly awkward trio of computer nerds.

More than that, the film is beautifully shot by Debie Benoit (Irreversible), whose captivating real-light only, sodium-tinged look is quite unlike any other film Argento has made to date. Claudio Simonetti contributes an intriguing euro-techno score, which becomes deliberately grating at the climax to form the butt of a typically Argento joke. And in Rocca & Cunningham, the film has probably the finest pair of lead actors to grace an Argento film since Hemmings & Nicolodi in Deep Red. Rocca is a pleasingly strong, intelligent & resourceful heroine, & plays rough determination very well. Cunningham is typically hard-bitten & no-nonsense, but the pair together get some surprising & very pleasingly tender & even quite touching moments together.

So ultimately, Il Cartaio is an enjoyable thriller, sometimes compelling, sometimes offbeat, sometime both, boasting excellent photography & a pair of strong performances. For anyone else this would be recommendation enough, but here’s the rub: this is supposed to be the new Argento film. And as such it’s hard not to feel somewhat short-changed. Whilst certainly no disaster, it’s a somewhat underwhelming experience whose virtues are almost obscured by the expectations of its creators previous work. See Il Cartaio, & enjoy it for the entertaining thriller it is, but join me in hoping that Argento is saving up all the good stuff for the Third Mother film.