Karla

Karla is austere in terms of filmmaking style, internally cold and thoroughly unlikable. You can shoot a film about murderers, but you can’t expect to be praised for it. For example, The Golden Glove is a significantly crueller and more detailed profile of an actual murderer, but besides the stench of decomposing corpses, it’s also possible to get a whiff of artistic investment, almost caricaturish humor and the effort to say things in an original way to reflect the social conditions of the time and place. Karla has nothing original about it and even the main characters, who are practically always present, do not add any interesting character traits. (08/06/2020)

The theme of this movie calls for a controversial and chilling treatment in the style of Monster. Unfortunately, what emerged was a completely uninteresting and boring made-for-TV type movie. Laura Prepon is lifeless in the role and there isn't a single interesting scene in the entire movie. The case of Karla Homolka was crying out for a movie adaptation, but here it is a harmless easily forgettable affair. Better to find some something about her on the Internet than to waste time watching this so-called reconstruction. (13/02/2007)

Was this decency protested against? It couldn't have been because of obscene scenes, because Bender never shows anything that would even slightly shock a viewer who is accustomed to more intense films. In all scenes where something bad happens to the victims, the camera focuses on shots of the main heroine, or sometimes Paul, and never deviates from this pattern. So the viewer can only dream of being chilled to the bone. On the other hand, I understand the dissatisfaction of Canadians because it feels a little bit like the script and the whole film were rushed in order to be shot before the topic becomes exhausted and we won't witness any emotions expressing sympathy for the victims. However (or maybe precisely because of that), since the film is based on real events, the characters behave quite foolishly. Paul is a monster and Karla is a fool when she lets herself be beaten and even helps Paul with his victims, hiding everything behind phrases about her partner's reformation. It is not explained why she becomes a sophisticated lady with high intelligence in prison, desperately trying to achieve even a bit of cunningness á la Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. So even though it seems like I'm just criticizing, thanks to the well-played Paul and the solid atmosphere, I reached somewhere around 55%, but I wouldn't watch it again because there's no reason to. If you read the plot synopsis, you won't get anything new from the movie. (07/01/2007)