Films Like Beckett Were Far More Numerous Than They Are Now. The Fact Is That In The Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, And Even Nineties, It Was Not Uncommon To See A Film Like Beckett, But In 2021 It Is; Because This Is A Two-Hour, Sometimes Slow, Hitchcock-Style Trailer. 

Beckett Movie has lovely scenery, a few solid performances, and a few casual action scenes. Although this work does not revive the gears of trailer and mystery works, it at least tries to be something similar to the classics of its genre. But, can it achieve such a goal ?!

Directed by Ferdinando Sito Filomarino, Beckett skillfully attempts to draw on the paranoid political thrillers of the likes of Alan G. Paola and the countless stories of Alfred Hitchcock about innocent men caught up in their larger film conspiracies.

The film’s protagonist, Beckett (John David Washington), is an American tourist traveling to Greece with his girlfriend, April (Alicia Vikander).

But his life changes completely after a tragic car accident during the trip.

Faced with grief, Beckett subconsciously finds his life at the center of a dangerous political conspiracy that he must always flee to a completely foreign country to save his life.

So, with this scenario, we are faced with a conspiracy from the very beginning that challenges the life of the film’s main character.

Beckett has a promising premise as a quasi-classic movie trailer, but the problem is that it may not be exciting enough. In fact, it certainly does not fit well with the films he clearly tries to imitate in terms of screenplay quality.

Regarding the details of Beckett’s central script, it refuses to design a massive, contemporary story that creates a complex network of relationships. Thus, the Italian filmmaker takes a simpler and more cautious sentiment in this work because the main character is in the wrong position at the wrong time.

 Although there is a solid play from Washington and Wickander and a beautiful direction from Filomarino, many of the characters feel underdeveloped in the midst of an often confusing plot.

Despite this gap in the body of the script and the characterizations, there is something about the outstanding character of this film that is fascinating and sets it apart from other modern political thrillers.

The point is, Beckett has no advanced access, no intelligence, and no political background like the likes of Jason Bourne. As the saying goes, he is just an ordinary boy, but unusual and a little naughty, which can at least be exhilarating.

This positive point goes back to the natural love of John David Washington in the context of his roles, which is reflected in every character he plays.

Sometimes this is a privilege and adds a little elegance to a film with this nature. But in other moments, it can break the energy and fast rhythm of the effect because the film begins to confuse the viewer.

 In addition, with the sudden progression of the story, the climax of the film seems very unpleasant.

Beckett’s film environment is initially subtle and relaxing, which leads to the viewer’s curiosity and engages the audience. Still, the same environment continues to tire the audience by keeping the film’s rhythm and beat slow.

In fact, the film loses its focus on the development of different parts of the plot by losing speed in the narrative; And this is so that even the talents of the actors can not play an important role in promoting it.

As the film progresses, you will feel that you will never know who Beckett really is.

The structure of the work tries to make a relative action hero, but as the plot progresses, it seems that the main character does not matter, which is due to the direct weakness of the script.

 In the words of Alfred Hitchcock:

You need three things to make a great film: the script, and again the script.

Now Beckett’s film, which seeks to follow the narrative structure of Hitchcock’s work,’s most important problem is the script; that’s really upsetting.

Sometimes many films can’t find the right tone for their scripts, making them feel dissatisfied or confused about the film in question. Beckett has chosen a good tone for a story about police corruption, political conspiracy, and kidnapping, but the script fails to understand what makes the film so exciting.

Despite this obvious weakness in the script, Ferdinando Sito Filomarino’s style and form are an ode to the paranoid political trailers of the 1970s.

 For example, ultra-realistic filming techniques create a cold, dark feeling throughout Beckett’s film.

Ryuichi Sakamoto’s overly dramatic and highly influential soundtrack also leads you directly to the overwhelming impression that you are not watching a film from this time. Still, you are watching past periods of cinema.

Basic frames and cool, cloudy views Most locations will immediately take you to Greek, which seems very classic.

So, after watching the film, you might say to yourself that a political trailer that takes the audience from the northern suburbs of Greece to the hustle and bustle of Athens had a great opportunity to show colorful and attractive scenes. Still, Beckett’s film is icy and gray.

This blackness and coldness of color and space is the result of the filmmaker’s chosen form, which is one of the strengths of the tone of the work.

 However, following this style has not been able to help the whole work.

On the other hand, John David Washington has proven that he is a talented actor and can take on action roles without any problems. But the problem here is that he does everything he can with this script and still does not get a good result.

There are also relatively interesting action scenes in this work, but the problem is that no one really knows why this happens. Therefore, what is initially thought to be a suspended mystery gradually becomes annoying.

Such a film should make the viewers tense while watching the work so that their hearts beat faster because this is the main formula of such works. But Beckett’s film does not even come close to that.

The work starts somewhat strong, but the initial excitement fades, presenting a mild story to the audience without real conclusions.

As a result, Beckett’s film tries to be a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s fascinating cinema, but to no avail.

So if you are interested in the shadow of Hitchcock’s works, you may be able to enjoy the first half of this film a little. Otherwise, you will not miss anything special without seeing this work.