Genre: Crime/Mystery
Director: David Fincher
Writer: James Morgan
Cast: Tom Hanks, Kurt Russell, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jeremy Irons, Donal Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Cooper, Colin Hanks, Max Irons, Wyatt Russell, Gabriel Macht, Astrid Berges-Frisbey
Plot : Detective George Randolph (Michael Stulhbarg) is alone at the precinct after one his colleague left. He prefers to work alone, in the middle of the night, after all, what could happen during this rainy night in Middletown, Connecticut. The reigning silent is broken by an hesitant knock on the glass door, followed by the small bell that rings when someone enters the precinct. Randolph grabs his gun, but silently prays that he doesn’t have to use it. A man comes in, soaking wet, his coat completely ruined. Randolph can’t see his face, after all, his lamp being the only source of light, but he clearly hears what the man says: he’s here to confess his crimes.
About 30 years ago, Rupert Sims (Gabriel Macht), Ian Danbury (Max Irons), Michael Rieser (Colin Hanks), Paul Harrison (Kiefer Sutherland) and Steve Monroe (Wyatt Russell) are satisfied that all of this is behind them. They each swear that they will never talk about this again, but when the time is right, Michael Rieser will confess and they will be ready, ready to play the game, an evil game.
Randolph starts by asking his name, he says Michael Rieser (Tom Hanks). He then asks what crimes he wishes to confess, to which Rieser answers, everything he’s done. Rudolph summons him to be a little more specific. The following answer takes Randolph by surprise, for his brutal honesty and spontaneity : for the kidnapping, raping, torture, sequestration, murder and decapitation of a young woman, which happened about thirty years ago. This case is infamous in Middletown, it was never solved and the parents never sought justice for what happened to their daughter. The police, at the time, had their suspects, arrested a few, but nobody was ever charged for the horrid crime. Randolph acknowledges his honesty and asks if he wants a lawyer, but Rieser, says it’s not necessary. He tells that all of them committed a crime related to young woman’s death, but nobody knows who actually killed her. He concludes by saying: let’s play a game, alright ?
Rieser asks Randolph to get the detective who worked the case all those years ago. Randolph says it’s going to be tough, because his father worked the case and he has Alzheimer now. Rieser refuses to say anything unless Elliot Randolph talks to him. He claims he wants to face the consequences, now that he’s at peace with himself and his decision. Randolph, facing no other choice, locks Rieser up in detention and leaves the precinct.
Ian Danbury is kissing Elise Kean (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) passionately. They’ve been going out together for about a year now. He’s way younger that she is, but that’s what she finds attracting in him. They hang out together for the better part of the day, and they go to the park together and kiss looking at the cloud. She gets ice cream at a discount to the place she works at. She asks Danbury a question she never should’ve asked: Are you still selling drugs for your friend ? Danbury can’t believe that she knows about the operation and he’s furious that she doesn’t believe him when he told he quit days ago. She leaves to go to work and Danbury meets with Rupert Sims, who was spying on them. Danbury says that she knows to which Sims answers that it’s time for her to be put to rest. Danbury opposes, but Sims says it’s the only option. They told him to dump her when she got too close.
George arrives him soaking wet. His father, Elliot (Chris Cooper) is confined to wheelchair, but can still have a conversation. His long-term memory is affected by the sickness, but he’s still a bit functional. Elliot asks his son what’s bringing home so early. He says Elliot is needed at the precinct. It’ll be nice to have a father-son moment. He gives Elliot is raincoat and they leave for the precinct.
Rieser starts to talk to Elliot as soon as he arrives. Elliot struggles to remember him, but Rieser rememorizes what happened to the poor young woman. She was coming home from work that day from the ice cream store where she worked and she was kidnapped by an unknown man. She was then taken to the house of Mr. Paul Harrison, where she was kept for over two weeks, during which she was raped by someone, tortured, then killed days later, after which she was decapitated and buried in Harrison’s backyard, until police uncovered her body. No arrest was ever made. George sees a tear coming down from his father’s eyes. He says he remembers now, he was never able to solve it and he regretted it ever since. He tells George he can’t be here for this, but George is determined to stay.
While Rieser tells his story to Elliot, George goes to the front door to see another man standing there, he’s here to confess his crimes. It’s Ian Danbury (Jeremy Irons). Goerge takes him to the same interrogation room. Danbury can’t believe Rieser opened his mouth first, but he’s also at peace with himself and ready to confess. George says it’s interesting. Elliot starts to faint in his chair and George decides to call it a day. He locks them up in separate cells, far away from each other. He’ll bring the others suspects at the time for questioning tomorrow. Right when George wheels Elliot out, Rieser and Danbury start to chat, screaming at each other, so they can get their stories straight.
When he gets back home, George looks at his father’s old case file, of course, he knows about the case that obsessed his father for years.
Rupert Sims looks at Elise working from a distance, always keeping an eye on her. Ian says she likes that it’s so quiet here at night. Danbury follows her discreetly when she’s done with her shift. He increases his pace a little and he can now touch her. He grabs her by the arm, covering her mouth with his hand. He carries her and throws her in his truck. He looks around, nobody saw it. He leaves the area looking as normal as possible.
The following morning, George wakes up and helps his father to get in his wheelchair. He’s more active than usual and more responsive, so that’s a good sign. He asks his father he feels like it too and he says he does. It brings tears to George’s eyes, it’s been a long time since he has seen his father like this.
Rupert Sims pushes Elise around and he kicks her down the stairs in Paul Harrison’s home. He ties her up to the drain pipe in his basement. He covers the windows with an old newspaper and he puts duct tape on her mouth to cover her screams. He slaps hard and he tells her to shut up. Paul arrives home, he looks at Elise in the basement, makes her a sandwich and watches her eat it. He talks to Rupert to know exactly what she knows. Rupert says she only knows about the drug operation, but he’s not sure.
George has the group, minus Rupert who died years ago, in custody. He wheeled his father to the precinct so he can be around, he seems to like it, it lights a fire in him. The other cops don’t mind, they enjoy the veteran’s presence. He’s a legend in Middletown. George decides to interrogate each one of them separately and he wants them to admit to the crimes they supposedly do. He starts with Paul Harrison (Donald Sutherland), clearly the more fragile of the group. He uses a cane to walk and George believes he’s a bit senile and it breaks his heart to interrogate him, because he reminds him of his father. Rudolph asks him bluntly, what did he do ? Paul says that, even if they used his house for the crimes, he wasn’t in the country at the time. When asked where he was, Harrison says that he was smuggling drugs to Mexico and he can prove that. He says he has no recollection of what happened to Elise, other than when he came back, she was dead in her basement and he dug a hole and threw her corpse in it, to let the worms eat her, hoping no one will ever find her, but he has absolutely no idea who killed the poor girl. The grin on his face is convincing enough to prove to Rudolph that Harrison is lying. He asks for proof of his trip to Mexico and Harrison is able to show him multiple photographs of him in Mexico at the time the crimes were committed. He came prepared and George didn’t think that would happen. He has a flashback to when he arrested them, they were all ready to go, all expecting it.
The bitch cried all night, complained Harrison to Michael Rieser who was supposed to look after her that day. He says that whatever happens in the next few days, he won’t be here, he’s going to Mexico for business. Harrison leaves the house in a hurry, leaving Rieser all alone with poor little Elise as an awkward silence reigns in the cold, undecorated basement. Rieser breaks the silence first, he’s not going to hurt her, he promises. He’s not like those thugs, he just made bad decisions after bad decisions and know he’s a part of a drug smuggling operation. He was friends with the wrong people and he got caught in the crossfire. She spits on him as he gets closer and he repeats to her that he means no harm. He examines her wrists, all bloodied up, she really tried to break herself free last night. He leaves to get a first aid kit, as Elise sobs.
Rudolph moves on to the next felon on his list, Ian Danbury. He asks what he did. He casually and calmly affirms that it was reported that Elise was raped, but he didn’t. They had consensual sex and no, he is not the one who killed Elise, nor does he know who did. Rudolph wants to know what happened. Danbury was her boyfriend at the time. He claims he tried everything to prevent her capture, but their minds were set. Danbury says that she was aware of their drug smuggling operation and they wanted to scare her and to know what she knew about it. Rudolph asks him if he ever loved her. He doesn’t really know, part of him thinks he only went after her to protect the drug operation, but part of him liked her, a lot. When he saw her, all bloodied up and emotionally distressed in the house, he wanted to recomfort her, to make him look like he was one of the good guys, then he claim they had consensual sex shortly after. George says it’s the easiest interviews of his career, they just spill out everything they know. Danbury says it’s all a game to them and they are playing him like a fiddle. Steve Monroe (Kurt Russell) asks Elliot if he thinks George will be able to find out who killed her, if he’s going to win the game, to crack the case. He wasn’t able to crack it years ago, but his son is not the same cop he was, he’s… different.
Steve Monroe keeps knocking impatiently on the door, so he just opens it. He rushes downstairs, only to see Rieser taking care of Elise’s bloodied wrists. He asks him what the hell he’s doing and he loses it. They shouldn’t nurse her, they need to know what she knows. Rieser says he asked about it, but she says she doesn’t know anything. Monroe is boiling. He races downstairs and he grabs a hammer, threatening Elise to reveal what she knows, but she claims she doesn’t know anything. He throws away the hammer and decides to remove her toe nails instead, one by one, until she reveals what she knows, all of this while Rieser begs him to stop. When he gets on the second foot, she finally gives up and she says she only knows they’re running drugs all the way down to Mexico, but she doesn’t know anything else. Monroe says she knows more and he’ll get it out of her, it’s just the start.
The next one to go in the interrogation room is Steve Monroe. Before Rudolph says anything, Steve says that they will be in here for a long time. When asked why, he says that he did unimaginable things to the girl, so George might want to take a break midway through. Rudolph cuts him off, he must ask him other questions first. Elliot wheels himself in, he wants to see Monroe get interrogated. He asks him where do the drugs come from; Monroe doesn’t, although he admits that Paul Harrison was the one acquiring the drugs. George asks him who this girl really was, who was Elise Kean? He can’t find anything about her in the files. Steve points at Elliot and is about to say something. Elliot is quick to intervene and he fakes a discomfort and George interrupts the interrogation to take care of his father. As the officer brings Monroe back to his cell, Monroe whispers to his old partners that the old man is playing along. He’s better than they anticipated.
After Paul Harrison left his home, he drove all the way across town, passing in front of the police station, waving at the officers stationed out front. He stops and parks in a indoor parking lot, on the top floor. He grabs the keys to a minivan, hidden in a trashcan and he pops the trunk open. He unzips a bag and cautiously checks on the drug. There’s a note left in the bag, addressed to him, don’t get caught. He smiles a little and he leaves the parking lot.
Now that Rudolph knows a little more about the whole drug operation, he wants to know a little bit more about the torture. He’s starting to get an idea of the big picture, but two pieces are still missing, he doesn’t know who killed her and who she was. He restarts the interrogation of Monroe and he asks him bluntly, once again, what did he do to poor Elise. Monroe then retells everything that went down in Paul Harrison’s basement. When Monroe first got to the house, he saw Michael Rieser hitting on her, so he told him to go away. Now that he was alone with Elise, he had to complete his one task, to know what Elise knew about the drug thing. Now, Monroe says that he suspects he was the one given the task because he was the only one with the stomach to do it. He had doubts in himself, so he went back and dragged Rieser downstairs so they can torture her together. He says he pulled her toe nails, her fingernails and he waterboarded her, along with Michael, before she finally gave up. He asks her what she said, but he can’t remember. Randolph says he’s heard enough and Monroe heads back to the cell. When Steve gets back, he interrupts a conversation between Elliot and Michael Rieser. He asks them what they were talking about, as it looked like they were telling each others secrets. Paul tells Elliot that he also knows about Elise. Michael and him knew. The others didn’t at first, but they picked it up over the years. It’s now just a matter of time until George gets it too.
Unsatisfied with Elise’s previous answer, Steve tears off her other toe nails. Elise is crying, bailing like a harpy, while Rieser begs him to stop immediately. She doesn’t want to say anything, so Steve continues, but this time on the fingers. After three fingernails, she screams at him to stop, she wants to reveal something. She says she knows someone and she may be her key to get out of this intact. Monroe asks her to spill out a little more, but she refuses to, it’s a long shot, she can’t promise anything. Steve adds that she must really trust who she’s working for, because she’s one tough cookie. Michael has enough of all of this, so he goes upstairs to put a kettle on, to try to get his mind off it. He can hear Elise’s screams even though he closed the door. From what he knows, Steve is done with the fingernails, so he wants to do something else. He rushes upstairs and fills a plastic container with water. He tells Rieser to come with him downstairs. He doesn’t want to, but he’s forced to do it. They grab her by the head and plunge it in the water. After two or three times, she’s ready to say how they can get her out of this conundrum. The water boiled and the hissing sound covers her scream. Michael calls Ian to come over, he can’t take it anymore.
George asks his father how he wasn’t able to convict all those guys years ago, they are all so guilty. Elliot says that they didn’t admit anything and they even passed polygraph tests proving their innocence, he was as baffled as George when he heard their confessions. Elliot gets a little agitated and says he can’t remember the exact details of the case and he’s angry with himself because of the stupid disease plaguing him. George says it’s alright.
George gets in a room with Michael for the second time, but he has different questions. He asks him what’s the game he referred to when they first met. Rieser says that by now, Randolph probably knows more about the case, but he doesn’t know who killed Elise, and that’s the goal of the game, but maybe it’s time for him to reveal the second goal of the game, why did they escape conviction all those years ago. Rieser adds that he did nothing to Elise, except sequestrate her, he never harmed her in any way and he didn’t wish to. He’s not a man that can cause harm to someone else. Randolph says that this statement is contradictory with what the others said, but Rieser holds on to his statement. He had no idea who killed Elise, but all he knows is that when he came back after he left, she was dead and minutes later, Harrison was burying her in his garden.
When Ian got to the house, he immediately went downstairs and was mystified by what could have happened in that basement. Elise was down, asleep. He woke her up and she was happy to see him, at least he’s not here to hurt her. Danbury plays the game and he gets all over her. She gets on board initially. She gets angrier and angrier and as her anger increases, he desires her even more, but her unwillingness to continue increases. He ends up forcing himself on her as she sobs uncontrollably, begging him to stop, telling him she’s sorry. When he’s done, he just gets up and leaves. He makes sure to lock the door on his way out as he was instructed.
George is just baffled by this entire thing. The pure evil these men displayed over the course of only a couple of hours is mesmerizing. He’s once again all alone in the precinct, trying to find something that will help him identify Elise’s killer. Something pops up in his head, he’s in Connecticut, Paul Harrison was leaving from Connecticut to deliver drugs to Mexico and he was back the next day. He has proof he’s in Mexico. Was this all made up? He decides to investigate a little bit more, this time interrogating them in front of his old friends, with Elliot looking on. When asked about this peculiar and downright impossible situation, Paul says that he never actually delivered drugs to Mexico. He had multiple cut off men that he would pass the drug to and receive payments months later. George starts to wonder who else lied to him during the interviews. He decides to sleep on it and he will lock down the precinct for the night. When both policemen are gone, active and retired, Michael Rieser wonders if everyone downright lied to Randolph in their interrogation. They all confirm it, saying it was all part of the plan, to plant doubt in the detective’s mind.
Paul Harrison leaves the shitty bar of an even shittier town near the highway and calls a cab back home. He pays the driver and gets inside, a weird smell emanating from the basement. He opens the door leading to the staircase and gags. He goes down and sees the horror. Dried blood everywhere, vomit and excrements all over the place, with Elise Kean’s dead body in the center. He masks the smell with a couple of air freshener cans and he starts to wonder what he’s going to do about it. He picks up the phone and calls someone. He asks him if he did that and judging by his reaction, the answer was yes. He goes outside in the dark of the night and starts to dig a hole, big enough to fit a body in it. When he’s done, he carries Elise around, with the bullet still in lodged right between her eyes and throws her in the hole. He fills it up and he starts to clean the mess in his basement. When he’s done, the sun is shining and it’s time for him to go to bed.
The following day, the group meets and they agree that they will never talk about it again, but when the time is right, Michael Rieser will confess. He doesn’t know why they chose him, but he accepts it nevertheless.
George is sitting at home, wondering who the hell killed Elise, cold-blooded murder and who planned this ridiculous and evil game. He asks his father one more time if he remembers anything. Elliot says he doesn’t. He gets grumpy again, but he really wants to avoid the questions since he thinks his son thinks of him as a bad cop. He locks himself in his room. George looks up at the file again. He notices a lot of gaps and clerical errors. He wants to ask his father about it, but he thinks about Alzheimer and everything and how joyous he’s been for the past day, so he decides to let it be. He looks through the suitcase again and he finds a secret compartment with a journal in it.
Elise is sitting on the ground, naked, covered in blood. She doesn’t have the force to talk anymore, doesn’t have the force to scream anymore, to fight anymore. She hears the door open upstairs and she starts to pray, to pray that they won’t hurt her again. The man comes downstairs and she starts to shake frantically. A gun is placed on her forehead, right between the eyes. She begs her aggressor to not shoot. A gun shot is heard as Elliot is seen sipping on his coffee. George uncovered his father’s personal journal, where he kept track of everything, day-by-day. He opens it to the bookmarked page:
Michael Rieser, Steve Monroe, Paul Harrison, Ian Danbury and Rupert Sims are evil men. But I have to give it to them, they are smart. Smarter than I’ll ever be. They’ve planned the perfect escape. Perhaps it was all luck, perhaps they really outsmarted him. Elise Kean was his daughter from a previous marriage. They were able to provide evidence that she was linked to the drug operation and they found out she was my daughter. I didn’t have her custody and she disappeared from my life. They had evidence. Evidence that could connect her to the drug deals, even though I am certain it’s not true. They played a game with me, a game I simply had to play. They wouldn’t tell the world about my daughter and I wouldn’t throw them in jail. I had no choice. I was a hero in Middletown. Everyone loved me. It would have gone down the toilet if it was uncovered. They also produced evidence proving that I stole drugs from the evidence room and I did, I am guilty of that. It was justice for a daughter I never loved or my reputation. It was an easy decision, so I covered my tracks. I faked documents and interviews. I “forgot” to do paperwork, so the case was dropped. They promised me they were going to come forward and confess, but I don’t know. What I did doesn’t make me a good cop, but I still did it. I hope I get to fix this mistake one day.
George puts the book down in disbelief as Elliot sips on his coffee, not remembering anything he did all those years ago.
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