Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Tim Mielants
Starring: Kevin Janssens, Jemaine Clement, Pierre Bokma, Hannah Hoekstra, Ariane
Van Vliet
A movie is already off to a winning start when its drama plays out in a
unique setting. That's certainly the case with Tim Mielants' comedy
Patrick. The setting here is a nudist camp in rural Belgium, where the titular
Patrick (Kevin Janssens), the camp's ostensible janitor, enters his
workshop one morning to find one of a set of seven prized hammers has gone
missing.
What follows is an absurdist reworking of a classic detective film. Much
like how Rian Johnson's
Brick
transplanted the trappings of noir to an American high school, so does
Mielants riff on the plot structure of The Maltese Falcon, with Patrick assuming the Bogart role as he encounters all manner of
possible suspects, femme fatales and villains in his quest to retrieve his
beloved tool, uncovering possible conspiracies and powerplays amongst the
camp's denizens.
But Patrick is no Sam Spade, rather he's painfully shy, withdrawn to the
point of near non-existence, a factor which lends itself well to the
cringe comedy at play here, particularly in an extended brawl in a cramped
caravan, a contender for the best fight scene since Roddy Piper and Keith
David traded blows in They Live.
It's testament to the effectiveness of both Mielants' storytelling and
Janssens' sympathetic central performance that the novelty setting quickly
becomes rudimentary, and every now and then you find yourself suddenly
realising you've been sucked into a drama in which boobs and willies are
constantly dangling in your face.
Patrick is on UK VOD from November
20th.
