In Decision to Leave, a picture-perfect detective's murder investigation slowly goes off the rails when he finds himself fascinated by the victim's enigmatic wife
Decision to Leave finds South Korean director Park Chan-wook at the absolute top of his game as he breathes new life into a not-so-classic detective story. The fiercely paced first half is a twisting police procedural that engrosses you with its clever editing and a brilliant score by Jo Yeong-wook before pivoting to a romantic exploration of two people trapped in life patterns finding liberation with each other. While it's not as subversive as his last film The Handmaiden, Park has a knack for using genre movies to explore deeper themes whilst never being less than entertaining.
Park Hae-il's performance as Inspector Hae-jun joines the pantheon of great detectives while Chinese actress Tang Wei gives the performance of a lifetime. The Oscars should keep an eye on them. 
Full review coming soon. Sign up for our newsletter to see it first.
ADVERTISEMENT
More movies, less problems
- ‘Wicked' defies expectations, a fearless movie-musical | movie review
- No Other Land is the most important documentary of our time | movie review
- ‘Queer' is messy, mad and marvelous | review and analysis
Hey! I'm Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I'm also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
💌 Sign up for our weekly email newsletter with movie recommendations available to stream.
ADVERTISEMENT
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.
One thought on “‘Decision to Leave’ is a romantic mystery | Cannes review”
Comments are closed.