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A Closed Book review

A blinded writer gets a mysterious helper in this mildly creepy thriller

Reviews
By Philip Kemp published 16 February 2010

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The latest from prolific Chilean-born director Raoul Ruiz (he’s made 90-odd movies and counting) lifts some tricks from Nabokov’s novel Laughter In The Dark and grafts them onto the plotline of Denis Dercourt’s chilly thriller The Page Turner.

Tom Conti plays an eminent art critic who was blinded in an accident and is now living alone in a hideous Gothic mansion.

A rather uncomfortably cast Daryl Hannah is the woman who answers his ad for help with his final book – but she has an agenda of her own.

The set-up does create a handful of creepy moments but it’s all rather mannered and the final denouement is disappointingly banal.

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Philip Kemp
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