This year's smarty-pants award goes to Donato Carrisi and his mystery, THE GIRL IN THE FOG

Can a movie be too clever for its own good? For proof, look no farther than the Italian mystery-thriller entitled THE GIRL IN THE FOG, making its USA debut via home video this week.

As written (from his own novel) and directed by Donato Carrisi, with some nice cinematography by Federico Masiero, the movie looks good, sounds good (Carrisi knows how to write decent dialog), and is very well-acted, as you might expect, starring as it does three of Europe's leading actors, two from Italy and one from France.

Signore Carrisi, shown at left, offers up a tale that is hardly original -- the kidnapping, in a down-on-its-luck Italian resort town, of a teen-age girl -- but what he proceeds to do with this is unusual and inventive, initially seeming to indict Italian society, media, police, parents, psychiatry, religion: yes, pretty much the whole sphere/schmear.

Top-billed and, as usual, earning his place is first-rate actor Toni Servillo, below, as the (in)famous police detective assigned the case, who is determined to make the very most of it -- and does, by any means necessary.

The chief suspect in the case is portrayed by Alessio Boni (below), who is equally fine as the poor schlub of a high-school teacher upon whom most of the guilt is directed. Signore Boni brings a put-upon persona, as well as a good deal of latent sex appeal to the role.

As the town's psychiatrist (or maybe psychologist), whom we early on find oddly interviewing the police detective, the more-often-seen-in-action-movies Jean Reno does a fine job of quiet exploration. The movie hops and skips about in time, back and forth, back and forth, keeping us on our toes and, for awhile at least, pleasantly confused.

If you enjoy mysteries, particularly those determined as much to surprise and outguess you as to pull you in, TrustMovies recommends this one almost whole-heartedly. His "smarty-pants" problems with the film have to do with its insistence on being clever and different at the expense of good storytelling.

There are spoilers ahead, which I usually don't offer -- but there's little way to come to terms with my doubts about the film without spilling some beans. So skip to the final paragraph if you intend to seek out this movie for a viewing. (Above is pictured the parents of the missing girl, well-played by Daniela Piazza, left, and Thierry Toscan.)

Carrisi waits until very late in the movie to even introduce the fact that there is a lot more that just a single murder going on here, and the manner in which he gives this to us piles exposition upon exposition -- and actually seems to pull the rug out from under his earlier indictments of the media and publicity-seeking policemen. (That's Lucrezia Guidone and Marina Occhionero -- above, right and left respectively -- as the suspect's wife and daughter.)

Finally, when we realize that there are actually three murderers here -- all of them the leading characters! -- we can't help but wonder if the movie is simply out to get the male gender, with the women here just fodder for use and disuse. Or maybe it's actually about a worldview of utter cynicism and misanthropy. In any case, for all the fun we may have had trying to figure things out, the film leaves a rancid taste in our mouth -- mostly out of what feels a lot like bad faith.

Still, if unusual mysteries are your cup-of-whatever, try The Girl in the Fog. It'll keep you engaged for at least much of its 128-minute running time. From Distrib Films US and released to home video via Icarus Films Home Video, the movie hits the street on DVD this Tuesday, August 6 -- for purchase and (I hope) rental. (That Greta Scacchi, above, who makes a smart, brief appearance late in the movie.)