A pair of sexy actors join forces with a couple of movie and music legends to shoot a film noir in Italy.
All set against the backdrop of the art world. Sounds like heaven, right? At least on paper.
The Burnt Orange Heresy has all the makings of a taut thriller: An aging artist, a greedy collector, and a couple whose rendezvous quickly turns sinister duke it out in a tale about an artwork no one’s ever seen. The cast is impeccable: Mick Jagger, Donald Sutherland, in-demand actress Elizabeth Debicki and Danish leading man Claes Bang.
The movie mostly lives up to its promise: Bang plays a once-prominent art critic (and failed artist) James Figueras who’s collecting a paycheck by spinning tales that may or may not qualify as art history to tourists in Milan. And who should glide into his classroom but mysterious American Berenice Hollis (Debicki)?
Within minutes the two are in bed, and minutes after that, off to the Lake Como villa of esteemed art collector Joseph Cassidy (Jagger.) The movie takes off when Jagger’s on screen. He’s done his homework and figured out Figueras, revealing him to be a bit of a cad with a shady past. Hollis’ story, or what we know of it, also seems a bit shallow: she claims to be a Minnesota schoolteacher who’s running away from a bad relationship. Who’s telling the truth? What secrets are they hiding?
Cassidy makes Figueras an offer he can’t refuse: Turns out recluse Jerome Debney, an aging painter played by Sutherland, is living on the property. Debney’s a legend of sorts who hasn’t been heard from for decades after a series of fires destroyed his masterworks. The scoop of the century awaits Figueras if he nabs an interview with Debney. But there’s a catch: Figueras needs to steal a painting for Cassidy…
Debney is delightful and slightly devilish, and, like Cassidy, talks circles around the couple. He also connects with Hollis in a way that opens up the possibility that they’ve met before. Figueras, though, takes us for a ride: What should have been a fairly easy absconding of the painting goes south fairly quickly with a dire outcome.
Based on Charles Willeford’s noir novel, The Burnt Orange Heresy should be a juicy yarn. This is Giuseppe Capotondi’s English language debut, and noir is a genre he’s tackled previously with The Double Hour. But while the cast is letter-perfect, the movie doesn’t sustain the tension as hoped. Who’s been set up? Is anyone telling the truth about their identity and what they’re doing in Italy? And why is Figueras so damn evil (and Hollis not acting on the intelligence she clearly possesses?) A little back story could have gone a long way.
Like its title, The Burnt Orange Heresy is a little perplexing. Questions of art, truth, ambition, and failure hang in the air. Although the movie ends with a fitting denouement, one can’t help but wonder if the movie’s third act could have hung together a little more tightly, this would have been a real gem.
THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY
Starring Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki, Donald Sutherland, Mick Jagger, Rosalind Halstead, and Alessandro Fabrizi
Director: Giuseppe Capotondi
Written by: Scott B. Smith, based on the novel by Charles Willeford
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. 98 minutes. Opens March 6 at the Landmark and AMC Theaters.
