Director Grant Singer’s debut feature has a compelling star or two, but is too flabby for its own good LONDON: There’s an unnerving moment at the end of Netflix’s new crime thriller “Reptile”, just as the credits are rolling, where it feels like the movie might have been far too complicated for you: You must have missed something; you haven’t been smart enough to wrap your head around some extremely clever, subtle concept, you idiot! For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle The moment soon passes, though. And you realize that “Reptile” is a film that’s actually far too meandering and convoluted for its own good, with plot nods (and even, let’s face it, a title) that bear little (or even no) relation to the way the story pans out. Benicio Del Toro plays Tom, a grizzled cop tasked with solving the brutal killing of realtor Summer Elswick in an empty house. Immediately in the frame is Summer’s boyfriend Will (Justin Timberlake), her ex-husband, and a local weirdo with a vendetta against Will’s family. As Tom digs deeper into the case, his tight-knit group of cop friends, his mentor, and his supportive wife Judy (an excellent Alicia Silverstone) all try to offer him support as he gets closer to unmasking the killer. It"s a cliché, but also fact, that Del Toro is unfailingly great in roles that require him to brood, ponder and dish out meaningful stares. He certainly gets plenty of opportunity here. It’s a shame, then, that debut director Grant Singer doesn’t have a more coherent, cohesive vehicle for his star (that being said, Del Toro co-wrote the screenplay with Singer and Benjamin Brewer, so should really share some of the blame), and instead drags Tom from one creepy location to the next for a series of fake outs and plot devices that, apparently, not one of the three writers could be bothered to resolve. “Reptile” certainly looks great — all sinister murk and atmospherically shot crime scenes — and Tom and Judy are a couple painted with a real sense of lived-in history. But unexpected narrative twists are only useful if they’re plausibly wielded, or at least properly foreshadowed. Instead, “Reptile” simply rolls on, struggling to build tension for the most part, and failing to satisfactorily resolve it even when it does. Some mysteries don’t need to be solved. Some movies don’t need to be made. Follow Topics: REPTILE NETFLIX