A daring crime drama with Olivia Coleman and David Thewlis about true love, escapism into the world of cinema and the ruthless murder of retirees.
British people living in France Susan (Olivia Coleman) and Christopher (David Thewlis) sincerely love each other, but live in poverty in a foreign country: she spends her last money on movie-related trinkets (in the first minutes she manages to buy the original poster of the movie "Exactly Noon" with her beloved Gary Cooper), he cannot find a job and pay off his debts, because he does not speak French. Another failed interview forces Christopher to call his stepmother and ask for money - during the conversation he confesses that he once stumbled and became an accomplice in the murder. She immediately reports this to the police, who find their remains in the backyard of Susan's parents' house.
"Landscapers" begins with a few spoilers: the credits show that the Edwards married couple were sentenced to 25 years in 2014 (they insist on innocence), and also that this is all a real story. The watched audience can estimate two options for the development of the series. Or the creators will present what happened as a meticulous labor-crime detective, taking the side of the heroes and challenging the cruel sentence by criticizing the inhuman judicial system. Or the lines in the spirit of "Fargo" will hint that all this is actually a fiction and now a criminal comedy filled with black humor about silly killers who absurdly betrayed themselves will begin.
However, the creators chose not the most obvious development of events - they turned "Landscapers" into a melodrama devoid of classical intrigue. The Edwards did kill the retirees. A partly radical and problematic decision to romanticize criminals will nevertheless bring the desired result in the finale - it's hard to remain indifferent when, in the last seconds, the same credits appear that "The Edwards were sentenced to 25 years, but they insist on innocence." This strange sympathy for murderers is not born out of whitewashing their name or a hint that Susan's parents deserved to die, but from trying to dig a little deeper than the headlines. In "two killers in need of money", as they were presented by the media, you can see ordinary people with unfulfilled dreams who love each other and, of course, cinema.
The success of "Landscapers" is built on the achievements of four people. First, the duo of people behind the scenes - screenwriter Ed Sinclair, husband of Olivia Colman, who not only wrote an excellent role for his wife, but also saw material for a unique crime series in an ordinary crime. And his co-director, Will Sharpe (this fall, he was marked by a vivid biopic "The Worlds of the Cat of Louis Wayne"), who skillfully brought to life a concept that crossed gray reality and vivid imagination, inspired by his favorite films. Visual means are the main feature of the series: Sharpe stylizes the characters' fantasies to resemble old Hollywood movies, elegant melodramas and heroic westerns, displays images from projectors on the walls, uses surveillance cameras and interrogation records, finally, drives the characters around theatrical scenery and does not hesitate to show them in the frame film crew. A similar meta-scrapping was in the recent "Scenes from Married Life", where Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac walked along an antiquated platform, after which they reincarnated as their heroes. In "Landscapers" it is done much more radical and artistic.
Another important duo of the series is inside the frame: we are talking about Olivia Colman and David Thewlis. The first in recent years has collected bags of awards for her work in film and television - here, too, she shines in the role of a vulnerable, “fragile”, as Christopher constantly calls her, and a slightly manipulative woman suffering from emotional abuse from her parents. With Thewlis, the opposite situation is - this is the most talented actor of his generation (see the film "Nude", where he played one of the best roles in history), who in recent years got lost in the background and in dubious projects. Here he surprisingly alternates naive confusion and shyness with aggression when he feels attacks on his wife from detectives. It turns out at least convincing, but, as in the case of Coleman, it is worth taking a little higher: these are some of the best acting performances that could be found in the series this year.
"Landscapers" is built on two opposing principles: it is an old-fashioned, humanistic, tragic story of loving criminals, and at the same time a postmodern, experimental project that challenges the viewer's idea of what a modern TV series could be. Such a variety of ideas, it seems, should attract the widest possible audience, but it seems that it will rather scare away the viewer and turn "Landscapers" into another underrated and neglected series.
This article was sponsored by Simona Serban
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