Wisdom of Crocodiles

Po-Chih Leong's heady thriller deconstructs a vampiric psychopath, Steven (a luscious Jude Law), who is every goth girl's fantasy, with his pre-Raphaelite looks and Byronic intensity. A kindly seducer of troubled women, he thwarts the subway suicide of Maria (Shallow Grave's Kerry Fox), only to murder her savagely. When her corpse is found, Steven volunteers to aid the police, including the savvy, laconic Detective Healy (Timothy Spall, from Secrets and Lies). He then pursues Anne (Nadja's Elina Lowensohn), a sophisticated engineer, and divulges his secret sickness: his mind is equal parts human, mammalian, and reptilian, and he craves the blood of women who love him. The film's intricate dreamscape photography and taut pacing whet the cerebellum, and most of the actors delve into the poetic pathology. But Wisdom of Crocodiles suffers from its own left-brain/right-brain conceit, veering off on pointless tangents, sacrificing intuition to intellect, ambling when it should fly, explaining when it should howl. Screens at the Copley Place Saturday, September 11 at 7:30 and 10 p.m. and Sunday, September 12 at 11:45 a.m. and 2:15 and 4:15 p.m.

-- Peg Aloi

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Film Festival Feature Films

| The Minus Man | The Tavern | Black Eyed Dog | The Last September | A Wake in Providence | Man of the Century | Pups | Dreaming of Joseph Leeds | Wisdom of Crocodiles | That's The Way I Like It | American Beauty | Mifune | Black Cat, White Cat | Hit and Runway | All the LIttle Animals | Me Myself I | The Alchemist and the Virgin | Trash | Old Man River | The Poet and the Con | Snow Falling on Cedars | Guinevere | East is East | American Movie | Rivers of Babylon | Two Ninas | Rats | Keepers of the Frame | The Runner |

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More Boston Film Festival information, film descriptions, and show times

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