Film: Killer Heat (Amazon Prime)
Cast: Richard Madden, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Babou Ceesay, Clare Holman, Abbey Lee, Manos Gavras, Argyris Gaganis
Director: Philippe Lacôte
Rating: 2/5
Runtime: 97 min.

“Killer Heat” based on “The Jealousy Man,” a short story by popular Norwegian crime novelist Jo Nesbø, lacks the intrigue, suspense, tension or effect that the story had in its written form. This film with noir elements fails to make it count because of its lack of intensity and storytelling smarts.

Penelope Vardakis (Shailene Woodley), the wealthy trapped wife of a shipping-company CEO based in Crete has summoned expat PI Nick Bali to investigate the case of her brother-in-law’s purportedly accidental death while undertaking a high-risk adventure sport of free-solo climbing up a vertical rockface. Bali’s investigation has to be under wraps supposedly because the Vardakis family controls the police force and reigns over more or less everyone else on the island. Penny believes that there was something fishy behind his death. Unfortunately, as an audience we find it rather difficult to get invested in this silly plot even when its presented with all the seriousness of a ‘noir’ project.