(Crime 2, USA, 2023)
- Gender: comedy
- Direction: Jeremy Garelick
- road map: James Vanderbilt
- Pour: Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Mark Strong, Mélanie Laurent, Jodie TurnerSmith, Dany Boon, John Kani, Enrique Arce, Kuhoo Verma, Adeel Akhtar
- Duration: 80 minutes
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What could happen in Mystery in Paris, a movie starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston and a sequel to one of the biggest hits in Netflix history that didn’t just seem like a crazy desire to make more money and be more successful? Okay, the first movie was nice, even surprising, funny here and there, but nothing too extraordinary. No one was hurt watching, the pastime was efficient, Sandler and Aniston have streams of chemistry together, but nothing left the place and the fact that the success was so immense was the most notable thing that happened there. Soon it was just repeating everything from end to end, and there was no need to pray for the coins to jingle again. Then they went there and did it, and from there the surprises started.
Yes, we finally have a sequel that… yes, it’s not going to hurt anyone, but it’s really surprising that there was a genuine desire to make it bigger and better than Mistério no Mediterraneo. Surely most critics will shrug their shoulders and not care, but the truth is that this new adventure of the Spitz couple is actually superior to the first one in practically everything. The new film is eyestinging, we can almost see the stakeholder meetings where it is laid on the table, “we must give the fans of the first film the homage they deserve”. And the feats are accomplished with some leftovers, without losing sight of the fact that we are talking about a product made for this purpose, without being ashamed of seeming like an industrial machine a new industry.
15 years ago this movie would have been #1 at the US box office for less than a week. Times have changed, comedy is dwindling at the box office, people are becoming hostage to streaming, and Netflix has found a gold mine in Adam Sandler; he found a way out of a star position that was beginning to change. But, you know what? Of the films Sandler has been in — aside from the ones that go to Cannes and those directed by certain Safdies, like Uncut Gems — if this new mystery in Paris isn’t the best (and it seems to be ), it is definitely the most finished. Its production values, not just for including a spectacular island and the City of Lights on the map, are quite attentiongrabbing.
And yes, I’m talking about editing, a problem that’s very annoying with Sandler films. Those who follow me know how much I love editing in comedy, because the “timing” here needs to be far more precise than in any other genre where time stretching fits. Tom Costain and Brian Robinson do an aboveaverage job and reveal a potential for the thriller that was already there in the predecessor. We’re talking about an even bigger development here in that sense, and one that puts Mystery in Paris in a really high position by any standards, whether by Netflix or by the comedy star. Furthermore, Bojan Bazelli’s photography also keeps the production in a very different pattern than what we usually see; There is a lot of work here to establish that no one has actually made a film on the can.
To think that there is topnotch treatment in a production that has no function other than entertainment is not a waste. A film of immense magnitude like Mystery in Paris can help this industry not to treat this type of product as an inferior citizen and we understand that as consumers of the same material. Scenes such as the meeting of the suspects in the Spitz’s room, or the car chase in the van, or the climax at the Eiffel Tower, do not occur as an attempt to show service and money spent, but everything seems to have been pieced together with the right artistic direction, organization of decoupage and aesthetic planning — and yeah, it doesn’t even seem like we’re looking at the gross stuff Sandler has already brought to comedy.
The man in charge here is Jeremy Garelick and let’s pray a third party gets this guy back at the helm of the boat as the results in Mystery in Paris are telling. And all told in record time, with the greatest urgency, without losing dignity, read without rushing or at least not one that the film does not justify. Add to that the charisma of the protagonists, the fact that we’re already intimate with Nick and Audrey, and (here we go!) some very amusing scenes that put the comedy where it should be. Voilà, we have a product about dignity delivered by brands that don’t always strive for it; We thank you for the respect with which we are treated and ask for more.
A great moment
The Van Chase it’s action, it’s comedy, it’s absurd!