Plongée Mortelle (2023)

Plongée Mortelle (2023) Which means “Deadly Plunge.” It’s original Belgium title: Ritueel.

Also titled Ritual for the English release.

Based on the novel ‘Rituel’ by Mo Hayder. This film is dedicated to her memory. Clare Dunkel alias Mo Hayder (1962 – 2021).

Kiki, a professional diver, helps the police recover bodies from the water. She lost her parents a year ago in an accident in South Africa and has felt a strong sense of guilt ever since. During a new investigation, she discovers two severed hands at the bottom of a canal…

This is not a shark film, nor is it a feature film that only takes place underwater. It’s not 47 Meters Down (2017), Breaking Surface (2020) or its German remake The Dive (2023). It’s a Belgian crime thriller that revisits a dark part of its bloody colonial past in the Congo. Following the thread of this past, which is linked to a family history, the plot unfolds well, even if there are a few zigzags that lose us in the script, it’s easy to watch.

The idea of recalling the atrocities committed in the Congo by Belgian colonialists during the time of Leopold 2 and those that are still being perpetrated today was an interesting one. But on the one hand, the screenplay for this crime thriller is particularly confused, and on the other, the direction is mediocre, flat and sometimes very clumsy, like the scene in which two scenes, one of love and the other of torture, are placed side by side, with a lot of gore. The actors have little presence, apart from the diving girl… and even then!

What’s more, it’s a bit long. Oh yes, how long it is… Half an hour less would have been very welcome.

Frankly, it’s a completely disappointing script, with little overall logic, useless flashbacks and a supposed guilt on the part of the lead actress that rings hollow, as she and the other actors play so badly.

A rather embarrassing, uncomfortable and unhealthy film. There’s this aspect of the rich whites being extorted by the vindictive black villains, although they do have a few excuses, after all! The script is messy and shaky. This attempt to combine thriller and colonial history is a real failure, both in its form and in its treatment of themes such as slavery.

Even the big sex scene sucks! Her colleague comes to her house. So the equation is simple: she’s lost, she tries to kiss him, he pushes her away, she gets angry, she tries to kiss him again, this time he lets her… and off we go! After all, the spirit may be strong, but the flesh is weak. And the scene is, of course, superimposed on a scene of torture and mutilation. When it comes to disturbing and debilitating, it’s hard to beat that!

Very difficult to stay focused. The problem is, I still watch all the films to the end… even if I don’t like them at all.