Reptile (2023) Review
Just like the Galapagos tortoise earned its place as the world’s slowest reptile ever lived, so does Reptile — a new Netflix thriller so painfully slow and pretentious that it makes me wonder how this even gets greenlit in the first place. At least the Galapagos tortoise — slow as it may be — deserves better respect than this near train wreck.
The setup, however, reads like a classic mix of thriller, whodunit and police procedural. We first met an attractive couple, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake) and Summer Elswick (Matilda Lutz) who both work as real estate agents. Then, one day Grady returns home to find out his girlfriend is brutally murdered.
Enter Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) and his partner Dan Cleary (Ato Essandoh), both in charge of the murder case. Their prime suspect is Grady but there are others as well, including Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt), a mysterious guy who’s been keeping tabs on the case; and Summer’s ex-husband Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman).
We also learn Nichols himself had a murky past a long time ago. But his captain, Robert Allen (Eric Bogosian) is very supportive of him and trusts his experience that he’s the best man for handling the case. Nichols’s wife, Judy (Alicia Silverstone) loves to assist him in the investigation as they will spend time discussing the case back home. Apart from work, he and some of his police colleagues including Wally (Domenick Lombardozzi) are close buddies.
Don’t get me wrong, Reptile boasts a promising cast. Benicio Del Toro does a great job playing a brooding and world-weary police detective. His expressive stare and body language alone tell a thousand words, proving the effectiveness of del Toro’s less-is-more acting style. His co-star, Alicia Silverstone excels in her feisty turn as Nichols’s wife and the rest of the actors, namely Michael Pitt and Eric Bogosian mostly deliver solid support. The only glaring weakness here is Justin Timberlake and try as he might, there’s an awkward feeling about the way he plays a shady character.
But stellar acting alone can’t mask most of the shortcomings in Reptile. The movie, which marks the feature-film directorial debut of Grant Singer, used to direct music videos for singers like The Weeknd, Ariana Grande and Sky Ferreira. He also served as a co-writer alongside Benjamin Brewer and Benicio del Toro, adopting the kind of restrained and methodical thriller style that feels as if they are going for the David Fincher-like storytelling route.
Except the movie misses a few key components. The story slacks more than often like watching paint dry, making the 134-minute runtime excruciating to sit through. I don’t mind slow-moving movies as long as they are absorbing enough to keep me intrigued. Too bad this isn’t the case for Reptile as it takes longer to move a needle. And even by the time the movie unveils its twisty revelations, they barely matter anyway. The problem here is that Singer’s frequently flat-footed direction often undermines the potential of its story whenever there’s a need to jazz up the thrills or dramatic tension.
With the suspense almost non-existent, the movie also fails aesthetically. I get that Singer wants his movie to be as atmospheric as possible with its moody colour palette and Michael Gioulakis’s cinematography. But instead of a slow-burning dread, it looks visually lifeless and even misses the opportunity to portray the movie’s New England suburb as a town full of dark secrets.
Given the calibre of the actors involved here, particularly Benicio Del Toro, they certainly deserve better. Del Toro, who had a hand in co-writing a feature-length screenplay (this would be his second time writing after the 1995 short, Submission), could have benefitted from a better script polish than what we got here.
Reptile is currently streaming on Netflix.
