Letters to the Editor: ‘The Whisper Man’ is nothing but a copy of better serial killer films and shows
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To the editor: Culture critic Mary McNamara calls “The Whisper Man” “as good as it gets” in the streaming-movie era, which suggests a critic unfamiliar with the serial killer genre’s oldest tricks (“Adam Scott and Robert De Niro give heart to twisty crime thriller ‘The Whisper Man,’” Aug. 27). The film opens with a search line combing a field for a missing child — a shot worn thin by “Broadchurch,” “Top of the Lake” and “True Detective.” Its jailed-killer-as-mentor hook is older still: “Red Dragon” did it with Hannibal Lecter, “Copycat” built a film around it in 1995 and “Prodigal Son” stretched it across two seasons.
Worse, “Whisper Man” lifts its whole architecture from “The Chestnut Man” — a present-day murder that’s secretly the buried continuation of a case everyone thought closed, solved by an estranged pair forced back together. “Chestnut Man” did it with sharper writing and real dread. “Whisper Man” has Robert De Niro, Michael Keaton, Adam Scott and Michelle Monaghan and still manages flatter characters and side plots that go nowhere.
Not everyone has to have a taste for serial killer movies and shows. But a critic reviewing one should recognize a copy.
Nancy Wright, Pasadena
