HIt appears to be a full-on crime thriller set in the rough streets of Edinburgh and starring the unlikely trio of Gianni Capaldi (Blood of Redemption), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction), and Vincent Cassel (Les Rêves). If you've ever wondered what a British police procedural TV show starring this cast would be like (and why wouldn't you?), then this is the movie for you.
As always, the story begins with a cold opening pre-title sequence depicting a gruesome murder: a woman opens the door to her Edinburgh apartment to be dismembered by a cloaked, hooded madman. (As per the rules of this subgenre, we see very little of the murder itself, but all the gory details in the crime scene shots that follow.) “Why do serial killers always bring in the cult element?” Jackson's character laments. But the “cult element” is, of course, almost mandatory. Can you really call yourself a bona fide movie buff if you've never played a killer in one of these movies, hiding torsos in unknown locations, arranging limbs and heads in the shape of a cross, or having fun with cryptic references to the Bible?
In fact, maybe the cop characters should take a leaf out of the killer's book, since the murders are done by said book (the Bible, naturally), but the police's methods are much dubiously shady. At one point, the lead cop (cleverly disguised in the promotional material as a Jackson/Cassel duo, but undoubtedly played by Capaldi) announces that he's found a key clue: a key that doesn't fit any of the locks in the woman's apartment. (If that's a clue, I hope nothing horrible happens to me; I'm sure there are half a dozen of them scattered around my house.)
The so-bad-it's-funny genre has taken a bit of a beating lately, with ironic camera glances and attempts at deliberate kitschy status in a world where being a meme can be the best advertising gimmick of all time. But Damaged isn't trying to be a meme; it's taking things completely seriously, striving to be a serious police procedural in the vein of '90s thrillers like Seven and Primal Fear. That sincerity, and the obvious earnestness of first-rate actors like Jackson, make this deeply absurd movie at least half-way worth watching.
