A Closed Book (2010)

Conti, an actor as sturdily reliable as a Volvo, delivers a brittle, curmudgeonly turn, but the story's stiff and the denouement as ordinary as a piece of A4. Full Review

With its unlovely DV aesthetic and cheesy midi-synth score, the film has clearly been put together on the cheap. Yet it's also severely lacking in the fundamentals. Full Review

A Closed Book is directed by Raoul Ruiz, a "revered member of the European avant-garde" who decided to tackle "the Anglo-Saxon tradition" - with execrable results. Full Review

Eccentric Chilean director Raoul Ruiz has rifled through the Hammer bag of horror tricks and come up with a relentlessly silly, oddly diverting yarn. Full Review

The film feels less like a thriller than an aesthete's tease, and one with a disappointingly stiff, Europuddingy flavour. Full Review

Watching this two-hander feels very much like sitting through a play and although it's a well-acted one, A Closed Book's amateur charms may be lost on moviegoers expecting a lot more flash for their c... Full Review

It's all rather mannered and the final denouement is disappointingly banal. Full Review

The cat-and-mouse plot fizzles out long before its lacklustre finale, which is a pity as Conti is watchable in an all-too-rare starring role. Full Review

A Closed Book should be locked, shut in a safe, then thrown into the sea so it is never seen again. Full Review

Events gradually turn Gothic, with things going bump in the night, as they often do in films containing blind characters or set in country houses, so here the fun is doubled, and it all culminates in ... Full Review