Too Late

A distinct disappointment after Pintilié's earlier An Unforgettable Summer, this clumsy blend of conspiracy thriller, comedy and political allegory centres on a public prosecutor sent to investigate a series of suspicious deaths in a mining town in contemporary Romania. Inevitably, there seems to be a cover-up, mainly on the part of the mine's management, who fear political unrest among their employees; equally inevitably, Pintilié implies (heavy-handedly) that old Commie habits die hard. The film's various mismatched components are held together only by the thesis that no one, save the investigator, wants to reveal or know the truth, while the 'romance' that develops between the hero and a surveyor seems sexist, hopelessly dated, and somewhat gratuitous. In short, a mess.