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MAY 6TH
Directed by: Theo van Gogh.
Written by: Tomas Ross.
Produced by: Gijs van de Westelaken.
Director of Photography: Thomas Kist.
Edited by: Merel Notten.
Music by: Rainer Hensel.
Released by: Koch Lorber Films.
Language: Dutch with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Netherlands. 117 min. Not Rated.
With: Thijs Römer, Tara Elders, Cahit Ölmez, Jack Wouterse, Johnny de Mol & Caro Lenssen.
DVD Features: 55-minute documentary “Have a Good Weekend, in Spite of Everything” about the murder of Theo van Gogh. On-set video diaries of Theo van Gogh. Trailer.

A fictional take on the 2002 assassination of Dutch right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn, this 2004 suspense thriller plays like a foreign episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The film posits an alternative theory to the official explanation of the convicted lone animal rights activist, and accuses Dutch secret intelligence of being behind the killing. “Ripped from the headlines,” the film begins L&O: CI style, as the action unfolds without much explanation. The plot to kill Fortuyn is gradually unraveled by a down-on-his-luck photojournalist (the appropriately grizzled, doughy Thijs Römer) as he, with his camera, captures incriminating evidence leading to the involvement of a Turkish immigrant (the charming Tara Elders) and her boyfriend. However, the political and corporate machinations supposedly responsible for the crime remain elusive even by film’s end.

Though there are a few truly gripping sequences (particularly a couple that both, strangely, involve water), several scenes meant to shed light on the motivations for the murder, involving the military-industrial complex, feel vaguely thought-out and ideologically one-dimensional, due to their too-literal quality (shady businessmen discussing their scheme in a dark boardroom) or to the ham-handed dialogue. Additionally, the movie’s attempts at character delineation are mostly distracting or unfocused (its divorced hero’s relationship with his ex-wife is strained, and the whole immigrant subplot meanders). Owing much to such ‘70s political thrillers as The Parallax View or Three Days of the Condor, the film simply can’t overcome the inconclusiveness that also made the earlier films ultimately unsatisfying.

DVD Extras: Director van Gogh comes across as a personable and funny man in the video diaries, self-deprecatingly referring to himself as a “fatty,” joking about Elders’ squeamishness regarding nudity, and condemning the comparison of Fortuyn’s stance on immigrants to that of a Nazi's. (Van Gogh’s dogged railing against the demonization of Fortuyn is obviously provocative).

The documentary on van Gogh’s murder, which occurred while he was in post-production on May 6th, is characterized by a tone that is so unmeasured it almost undermines the quite serious point it’s trying to make about the Dutch government’s possible cover-up surrounding the filmmaker’s death. It does present some convincing evidence – including intelligence transcripts and memos pointing to inconsistencies between the government’s official line on van Gogh’s murderer and the reality. However, its melodramatic shots of its narrator variously confronting intelligence figures; on the phone interviewing witnesses, rolling her eyes; and the casual, facile summoning-up of 9/11, the doc can justifiably be likened to a right-wing Michael Moore parody (although Moore, whose directing and editorializing is superior by far, had enough sense not to actually show the infamous footage of the WTC attacks). Reymond Levy
February 25, 2007