Providence
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Providence |
| Original title | Solace |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2015 |
| length | 101 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Afonso Poyart |
| script |
Sean Bailey , Ted Griffin |
| production |
Thomas Augsberger , Claudia Bluemhuber , Matthias Emcke , Beau Flynn , Tripp Vinson |
| music | Brian Transeau |
| camera | Brendan Galvin |
| cut | Lucas Gonzaga |
| occupation | |
| |
Providence (Original title: Solace ) is an American thriller from 2015 with Anthony Hopkins in the lead role. Directed by Afonso Poyart and written by Sean Bailey and Ted Griffin . The film was released in German cinemas on December 31, 2015. On May 19, 2016, the film was released in Germany on DVD, Blu-ray and VoD.
action
The FBI's Joe Merriweather and Katherine Cowles face a series of murders they cannot solve. All victims were stabbed in the back of the head. This method is described in the film as being painless. Against the resistance of his partner Katherine, Joe calls in the clairvoyant John Clancy, who, after the death of his daughter and the separation from his wife, lives secluded in a neglected house in the country.
After Clancy first declined to work on the case, he found himself at the FBI the following day. The team will soon be able to record its first successes. It becomes clear to them commonalities of the victims: All suffered from fatal diseases. In the case of the youngest victim, aged twelve, this was only revealed after an autopsy, during which the pathologists found an incipient tumor in the boy's cerebellum, following a tip from Clancy. Seconds before the tumor is found, Clancy is handed an urgent, personal fax suggesting, apparently from the killer, that the cerebellum be examined. Through this, and through similar previous occurrences, it becomes clear to investigators that there has to be someone else who has clairvoyant abilities and who is far superior to Clancy with his providence. This enables him to manipulate the team so that they do what he wants. Clancy realizes that he is inferior to him and stops working in this case. However, Katherine manages to change his mind.
Once again, the officers are called to a crime scene in a factory-like building, where they find a gruesome female corpse in front of a ghostly mural painting. Guided by Clancy's visions, they follow a trail to a house where the team meets a young man. He claims to be an artist and has nothing to do with the fact. In a moment of relaxation, however, he draws a gun and shoots Joe Merriweather, who is taken to the hospital.
Katherine and Clancy pursue the young man, who escapes first on foot and then in a taxi. Clancy's predictive skills will help out in the chase. The fugitive is involved in a traffic accident in which Katherine's and Clancy's car overturns. In another short vision of Clancy in the seconds after the accident, he is shot by the fugitive. Clancy, however, can change the situation with this knowledge so that the fugitive is shot by Katherine. The investigators realize, however, that the serial killer he was actually looking for is still at large and has set them on the trail of this psychopathic killer, so that he shoots Joe Merriweather, who is now suffering from terminal cancer.
Some time later the serial killer sits down at Clancy's table in a bar and explains the motive for his actions. The victims are doomed to die, and by killing them he would spare them the agony of a deadly disease. However, Clancy does not react to the explanations, but has another vision. In it he has to recognize that the attempt to arrest the serial killer will end in the death of innocent people and that the murderer's escape cannot be prevented. Knowing this, Clancy changes the situation again; instead of pinning him down, he hits his counterpart in the face with an ashtray. Surprised by the act that was unforeseen for him too, the murderer escapes in the ensuing tumult. After the escape, Clancy has another powerful vision. He also finds out the name of what he is looking for: Charles Ambrose.
A short time later, the murderer wants to kill another man who is also doomed to die from an illness. In his apartment he meets Clancy, who can now foresee Ambrose's intentions. Clancy's abilities are no longer inferior to those of his adversary due to the murderer's revealed weakness. In the apartment of the victim chosen by Ambrose, a dialogue develops between the two opponents. Ambrose tries to convince Clancy that his preventive euthanasia is morally correct. Clancy, however, does not allow himself to be dissuaded from the point of view that he has no right to steal even a second of people's lives. Without actually committing the murder, Ambrose leaves the apartment believing that sooner or later Clancy will come to the same conclusions as himself.
Meanwhile, Katherine and another FBI agent searched databases and also found out through gun ownership records that the killer's name was Charles Ambrose. At the given address, however, the agents only find an empty apartment in which a video message from Ambroses is projected. Ambrose announces a meeting with Clancy and Katherine at a train station.
After Ambrose volunteered to reveal his whereabouts, the FBI occupied the platforms of a train station where they were waiting for Ambrose. Against the advice of the FBI, Katherine drives her car to the train station as quickly as possible. On a train on the way to the occupied station, Clancy has already stopped Ambrose. Ambrose tells Clancy that because of his skills, he chose him to continue his work. Ambrose prophesies that if he tries to save Katherine, he will die at Clancy's hand. When the train comes to a halt shortly afterwards, excited people rush from the train, which means that the FBI shooters have no clear field of fire. Now, in turn, Clancy experiences another vision in which the indefinite fragments of previous visions finally become a clear picture. In it, Katherine runs unprotected towards the two, Ambrose shoots Katherine in the head and is shot by the FBI. Knowing this possible end, however, Clancy anticipates Ambrose by killing him with a shot in the chest. Just before he was hit by Clancy's bullet, Ambrose fired another shot himself, which injured Clancy in the head but did not kill him.
Katherine visits the injured Clancy in the hospital. He hands her a letter to be given to his wife, from whom he has been separated since the death of their daughter. Clancy and his wife Elizabeth meet again in a park. A final look back from Clancy reveals that he had ended the agonizing existence of his leukemia daughter by euthanasia. With this final piece of the puzzle about Clancy's history, the film ends as Clancy walks off arm in arm with Elizabeth.
Presentation of the visions
The psychologist John Clancy has vision skills. These visions are shown to the viewer as hard-cut, short overlays. For example, there are views of Katherine's injury with her face covered in blood and a neon sign with the words ATTICUS. Both motifs play a role at the end of the film. The advertisement is on the train station where the showdown scene is going on and Katherine is being shot. However, this does not die as in Clancy's dark premonition, but survives through his courageous intervention. The prophecy is therefore not fulfilled. So looking into the future was just a possibility and not an inevitable fact.
Reviews
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"Every film fan knows these words of the people-eating psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter from 'The Silence of the Lambs' and also has Anthony Hopkins' frighteningly fascinating portrayal of the monstrous genius in mind […]. Such a roll of the century can not only make an actor world famous, but also prove to be an artistic boomerang. But the danger that Lecter determined his career too much and he was committed to the psychopath part apparently never frightened Hopkins. He slipped into his parade role two more times [...] and also plays in other films again and again with pleasure and skill with the mannerisms and spleens of the cult figure. In Afonso Poyart's mystery thriller 'Providence', the Briton changes to the side of the good, but as a psychiatrist with supernatural talents he still lets something of Lecter's aura feel. It is mainly thanks to Hopkins, but also to his fellow actors Abbie Cornish, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Colin Farrell, that the film, which threatens to slip out of Poyart's hand every now and then, still offers decent entertainment overall. "
“[...] With Hopkins and Farrell, two protagonists with the same clairvoyant gifts meet. Accordingly, the showdown culminates in a diffuse battle of the magicians, in which nothing really seems compelling because you don't know exactly who foresees whose future. Anything goes. Solidly staged, but not really original. "
“[...] With Providence, director Afonso Poyart (Two Rabbits) has succeeded in creating an exciting psycho-thriller that will enthrall you with its gripping story. For a long time as a spectator […] you grope around in the dark and try to string together part by part in order to solve the case. [...] When the resolution follows at some point, you feel a bit taken by surprise and then only follow the direct comparison, waiting for the showdown. In this respect, Providence loses a bit of sophistication, but overall the film retains its high level. [...] Several times memories of seven are awakened by looking, but Providence is far from just copying. "
“The exciting, visually adept thriller plays with supernatural elements in which reality and dream, past, present and future merge. In the process, however, it gets lost in its construction: moral questions or a psychological primer take a back seat in favor of optical brilliance. "
Web links
- Providence: Official Website (German)
- Providence in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Providence at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for Providence . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2015 (PDF; test number: 156 487 K).
- ↑ Providence - December 31st in theaters. (No longer available online.) In: The Providence. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016 ; accessed on June 1, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Solace (2016) at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed January 31, 2016
- ^ Solace Review at Metacritic , accessed January 31, 2016
- ↑ Providence in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ Carsten Baumgardt: Providence - criticism on filmstarts.de
- ↑ Manfred Riepe: Review of Providence - epd film
- ↑ The Providence - Criticism / Review on Moviejones
- ↑ Providence. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .
