Review of Tattoo

Introduction

Serial killer thrillers are hardly thin on the ground so Tattoo has its work cut out. It`s in German, which is different, and is about a different kind of crime to the normal every day ones you hear about. This is about collectible art, tattooed skin in fact. Hiromitsu was a Japanese artist who created some very fine works of tattoo art and now it seems someone is skinning, or collecting them. Most of those with a Hiromitsu wind up dead.

Entering the homicide fray is a fresh, young, police officer, Marc Schrader (August Diehl), who`s blackmailed by Inspector Minks (Christian Redl) to help solve a grisly murder. It seems that the victim had a large portion of the skin from her back removed before she was run over and burnt. Together Schrader and Minks come across a `collectible skin` sub-culture you`d never know existed.

Video

Presented with a 2.35:1 widescreen enhanced video transfer, Tattoo is visually stunning. The film is dark and stylised in appearance reflecting a sombre dark mood; while colours are restrained the contrast is superb giving us a rich, dark black and equally bright white. The locations and production design are distinctly European in flavour and this kept me stimulated from start to finish; I found Tattoo visually appealing despite a bit of softness in some scenes; grain too is minimal. I couldn`t spot anything in the way of compression, defects or other transfer problems.

Audio

There are three German soundtracks to choose from: Dolby Digital 2.0, 5.1 and DTS 5.1. Tartan`s determination to produce better DVDs is all the more apparent with a DTS option for every new title coming out. Here both the DD 5.1 and DTS audio are superb. There`s good use throughout of surround sound for ambience with notable scenes featuring the club and a chase. The German dialogue is clear and effective too.

Features

Easy to navigate menus with a few extras:

• Original Theatrical Trailer (widescreen enhanced) (1:49) - A trailer which will spoil things if you`re unfamiliar with the film.

• Director Interview (widescreen enhanced) (32:37) - This is an exclusive UK interview with Director Robert Schwentke, which I found interesting. The interviewer asks questions about Robert`s TV background prior to Tattoo as well as his influences. Robert comes across as an interesting and self-assured filmmaker.

• Tartan Trailer Reel - A mixture of some interesting looking Tartan titles.

There are clear English subtitles.

Conclusion

Tattoo is a predictable police procedural affair but manages to rise above the average `me too` thrillers by the sheer will of Writer/Director Robert Schwentke. While it`s not the most original serial killer film ever made it does manage to stimulate enough interest through its industrialised German milieu and stylised photography. All the while it`s difficult not to make comparisons with similar films like Seven. In fact, there are quite a few parallels with Seven; swap the seven deadly sins for 12 pieces of collectible tattooed skin, something in a box, as well as a fair amount of rain with a dark look and feel, and you can see what I`m driving at. But this is where it ends and where other story elements kick in. The idea of an underground that could be lurking just around the corner of every day life and that has people collecting tattooed skin is creepy and different. I liked the way it explored this sub-culture without being overly graphic and this is what sets it apart from other serial killer films. It`s an interesting angle, but it does have its problems.

There are a few times when the film glosses over things that just seem unbelievable in terms of story. Such as the convenient stumbling upon a tattoo seller on a train, bleeding heavily, who provides Detective Schrader (August Diehl), with a lead. We`re now chasing down a certain style of classical tattoos by the artist, "Hiromitsu" and he created only 12 in total. How does Schrader gets a list of the other 11 people with Hiromitsu tattoos? He mentions in passing that such a list is probably impossible to make, but Maya (Nadeshda Brennicke), a gallery owner and friend of one of the victims says it`s not. There`s no mention of how she gets the list and it seems she has a greater involvement in the story than we`re led to believe. In some scenes she seems key and in others she remains too ambiguous.

Then there`s the side story of Inspector Minks (Christian Redl) asking Schrader to help him find his missing daughter. It doesn`t seem believable to me that someone as grim as Minks would ask for help so readily or would have moments of weakness later on in the film without any sign of his character/story being set-up. For someone to say that he simply cracked up big time in the past seems like a convenient and lazy way to propel this aspect forward. Adding up 2 and 2 gives me 3.5, and I`m left making all kinds of assumptions. Normally I wouldn`t make too much of the flaws except that there`s an attempt to tell a story here and some things just don`t make sense. Despite the shortcomings of the film, such as the relationship between the Inspector and his Detective, the various story flaws or the ambiguous ending, the film still manages to be fairly entertaining with a fair and even pace; I`ve watched it twice already.

Altogether good video and sound quality, good central performances from August Diehl and Christian Redl and a well-dressed routine thriller mark this film as a little better than most. It`s a shame there aren`t any decent extras, unlike the German 2-disc DVD, which has an audio commentary, featurettes and more as I`d like to know a bit more about the film. Tattoo is worth checking out if you`re in the mood for a dark and brooding foreign language thriller, but beware the holes.