Yara appears to have nothing much in common with Bodil except the house and doesn’t like Bodil at all. She promptly leaves and Bodil scurries off to a lecture, ironically on lying, given by academic Michael Samuels (Matteo Simoni) who turns out to be Bodil’s lover. The country house becomes the setting for raunchy sex.
It’s also the setting of a murder. A local dog, out with its owner for a walk in the sand dunes, steps in a pool of blood lying in the hallway of Bodil and Yara’s house. Romantic mystery becomes thriller.
There’s no body but when the police investigate, the blood is identified as Isobel’s. Loverboy Michael takes off quick smart. The husbands arrive. Bodil, caught in her own web of deceit, piles up lie upon lie and soon becomes a murder suspect.
Bodil and Isobel aren’t the only liars. The husbands reveal themselves to be liars too, resorting to escaping their unhappiness through lies and deception. Faithfully Yours is a bit of a sad commentary on the lives of disillusioned married people.
Experienced thriller director André van Duren directed and co-wrote the film for Netflix. It’s beautifully shot, capturing the beauty of Ostend and its surrounds, and close-ups are well handled. Acting is good, characters are all suitably complex, there’s a police investigation that’s almost completely convincing, although one has to wonder why the police apparently didn’t interview that appalled dog-walker whose bloody-mouthed dog came bounding towards him right at the start, and then there’s the raunchy sex. All of these add up to a good couple of hours’ viewing and the plot is gripping enough to ensure another Netflix hit.
As in many good thrillers, suspicion falls on one character after another. If this becomes tiresome, the ending compensates, with its final twist, the race against the clock, the private airport scene complete with the getaway plane that’s reminiscent of the final Casablanca scene, and the big reveal.
Highly recommended.
Movies are rated: Avoid, Recommended, Highly recommended and Must see.
