Into the Labyrinth

"It probably didn't help my enjoyment of this thriller that every time I saw Dustin Hoffman I kept thinking he was Jack Klugman! The intriguing story follows the tale of the recently liberated "Samantha" (Valentina Bellè) who has emerged after some fifteen years of captivity in what she describes as a fairly malevolent labyrinth. It demanded that she complete tasks set by her rather more menacing version of a Rubik's Cube if she is to eat, or sleep - and all of this is now being discussed with "Dr. Green" (Hoffman). Meantime, much to the chagrin of the police, private investigator "Genko" (Toni Servillo) is also trying to find out just what happened, and he believes she is not the only victim of this horror. As the story develops, we begin to suspect that somethings aren't right - is she making the whole thing up? It seems so fantastic; we can't really tell fact from fiction either. Sadly, though, Donato Carrisi doesn't fare so well at directing this Benicio del Toro style of dark mystery. At just over two hours long, the film meanders all too often. The plot isn't delivered in anything like a concentrated enough fashion to sustain the interest, and thought it does build well at times, the denouement is rushed and weakly delivered leaving too many new characters til last minute to complete the jigsaw. The acting is all pretty lacklustre and though I thought Servillo did try hard to create a puzzling sense of menace, the rest of this all just fell rather flat."