The story is pretty threadbare. Three roommates or flatmates (Eccleston, MacGregor, and Fox) find their fourth roommate or flatmate dead, evidently a suicide. They're pretty nonchalant about the naked dead body in bed. They go through his drawers and his luggage and find thousands of pounds sterling, which gives them ideas about disposing of the body and keeping the cash.
They matter-of-factly saw the body into parts, disposing of the hands and feet in acid, bashing in the face, and bury it in a shallow grave in the kind of densely wooded area where all dead bodies are found, as this one soon enough is.
One of the three conspirators, Eccleston, a creepy guy with glasses to begin with, starts acting -- well, a little twisted. He sequesters himself in the attic and drills holes through the floor so that he can peek down on the other two.
Two business-like goons looking for the missing cash show up and are killed by Eccleston, and disposed of in the same way as their erstwhile roommate or flatmate. The police find their remains as well.
The police investigate. Things get a little more tense. Eccleston takes up with Fox and they are about to leave for Rio together, but it develops that there have been one or two, or maybe three, double crosses concerning the lolly. Everybody winds up dead.
What this film has going for it are a number of things. For one, the performances are uniformly splendid. The principles and subordinates do a fine job. And Kerry Fox is attractive in a non-conventional way, slightly plump, but with magnetic eyelids. MacGregor looks as if he stopped having zits the day before yesterday.
The direction is more than just functional. I think we notice it mainly when the film deals with the two detectives. There is one shot of these two goofy looking characters -- one who looks like Happy of the Seven Dwarfs and the other like a scarecrow -- seated next to one another on a sofa. They are silent. The shot lasts so long that the image itself turns slightly grotesque.
But then these two detectives are really Doozies. Their dialog is almost surreal at times. "Only three people in the flat, not four," says the senior detective to the other, "Write that down, would you? (Long pause) You can use either letters or numbers. (Long pause) Which did you use?" Answer: "Both." It's quite stylishly done, especially given the budget, and worth catching.
They matter-of-factly saw the body into parts, disposing of the hands and feet in acid, bashing in the face, and bury it in a shallow grave in the kind of densely wooded area where all dead bodies are found, as this one soon enough is.
One of the three conspirators, Eccleston, a creepy guy with glasses to begin with, starts acting -- well, a little twisted. He sequesters himself in the attic and drills holes through the floor so that he can peek down on the other two.
Two business-like goons looking for the missing cash show up and are killed by Eccleston, and disposed of in the same way as their erstwhile roommate or flatmate. The police find their remains as well.
The police investigate. Things get a little more tense. Eccleston takes up with Fox and they are about to leave for Rio together, but it develops that there have been one or two, or maybe three, double crosses concerning the lolly. Everybody winds up dead.
What this film has going for it are a number of things. For one, the performances are uniformly splendid. The principles and subordinates do a fine job. And Kerry Fox is attractive in a non-conventional way, slightly plump, but with magnetic eyelids. MacGregor looks as if he stopped having zits the day before yesterday.
The direction is more than just functional. I think we notice it mainly when the film deals with the two detectives. There is one shot of these two goofy looking characters -- one who looks like Happy of the Seven Dwarfs and the other like a scarecrow -- seated next to one another on a sofa. They are silent. The shot lasts so long that the image itself turns slightly grotesque.
But then these two detectives are really Doozies. Their dialog is almost surreal at times. "Only three people in the flat, not four," says the senior detective to the other, "Write that down, would you? (Long pause) You can use either letters or numbers. (Long pause) Which did you use?" Answer: "Both." It's quite stylishly done, especially given the budget, and worth catching.