A thirteen-year-old who was kidnapped and long-held prisoner, Sam is now suddenly free, traumatized and wounded. She is hospitalized and examined by profiler Dr. green (Dustin Hoffman), who exploring her mind, hunts the monster that kept her locked away all these years.
Into The Labyrinth is a peculiar piece of cinema, and it is specifically designed that way. A feature film adaptation of his own novel, Donato Carrisi clearly holds a great deal of love and understanding of the roles and motivations of his cavalcade of unorthodox characters throughout this psychological thriller. Whether this is a positive or negative attribute, is dependant on the viewer.
Carrisi weaves together two story arcs; one that focuses on interactions and explorations between Dustin Hoffman and Valentina Bellè's characters, and one that follows the more methodical investigation route of Bruno Genko (played by Toni Servillo).
A curious combination of narrative styles and languages that in itself brings reality itself into question long before the plot device of psychotropic drugs is introduced. A man about to die, a woman under the influence of drugs, and a man with unknown motives; all form a shaky foundation of unreliable narrators that can easily change the direction of the film at the flick of a switch.
Interwoven and connected to keep the audience intrigued while never truly answering any questions until the final act. The film rises and falls on its characters, and it is one of the downsides of adapting your own characters. author, scriptwriter, and director, Donato Carrisi understandably knows the characters inside and out.
Every piece of their backstory, every event that has shaped the character to create their nuanced or exaggerated personality quirks. Much of this character development is not included in the film, however, characters act a certain way with no context as to why. It is the sort of simple characterization that any other director would put more focus on. Much like how it is unwise to proofread your own essays, an outside eye would be better at highlighting gaps in the characterization.
Despite the lack of context for many of the characters, Carrisi has still put forth enough atypical attributes to make Into The Labyrinth an intriguing watch. The almost supernatural atmosphere of the film, combined with unreliable narrators, misdirection, and a set of reasonably well-executed reveals in the final act, come together in a manner that stops you in your tracks and turns your assumptions on their head.
Dustin Hoffman is indeed in this film, but don't let that affect your expectations of the film, as his role is something outside of his stereotypical roles. The real acting highlight comes from Toni Servillo, who is the only real source of pacing in the film.
His unconventional yet surprisingly efficient investigation technique is the aspect of the film that keeps a sense of urgency and movement, keeping the film from becoming stale. Despite his portion of the film being spoken in Italian with English subtitles, it remains the portion that really hooks the audience in, in comparison to Dustin Hoffman's exploratory analysis in English.
There is much that could be improved, but Into The Labyrinth is still an above-average crime thriller that leaves you trying to untangle the pieces throughout the film's credits; piecing together the final bits of the puzzle. Carrisi walks that fine line between conventional and unconventional, between natural and supernatural, to keep the audience on their toes until the very end.
Into the Labyrinth is in cinemas from February 4th, 2021