Refn films this story, which he cowrote with Selby (Requiem for a Dream), like a muted drug trip! Lurid colours and eerie noises create an unsettling ambience that keeps us off balance from the very beginning. And a terrific performance from Turturro draws us in--we see almost everything through his eyes, to the point where even we start to believe in his hallucinations. All he wants to know is why his wife died--he's not driven by a desire for revenge, or at least he doesn't think he is. All of this is crystal clear in Turturro's haunting performance.

So it seems strange that the script actually undercuts his point of view by giving us the solution to the puzzle relatively early on. And the whole thing feels rather pretentious--Refn seems overly pleased with his own cleverness, laying on the hypnotic austerity a bit thickly, staying elusive and insinuating almost to the point where the film becomes dull and lifeless beneath the carefully constructed terror. The cinematography, score and production design all draw heavily from David Lynch, but without Lynch's deeply emotional resonance. Instead of a yawning sense of desperate sadness, this film gives us a driving quest for truth. It's clever and creepy, but not quite the masterpiece Refn thinks it is.