In Victim of Love, Jesper Isaksen’s debut feature, Charly (Rudi Køhnke) has returned to the hotel from which his girlfriend Amy (Louise Cho) disappeared the last time they were in Copenhagen. Almost immediately the film then displays Charly to be an unreliable narrator as Amy’s mother insists that Amy disappeared when they returned to America. The question is also begged if Charly is there ostensibly to look for Amy, as he keeps insisting, why does he spend most of his time in bars drinking, doing drugs, and hooking up with women? The film offers an exploration of a man slowly coming apart as he tries to understand what has happened not only to his girlfriend but himself, and shows potential, but is also equally flawed.

In Danish and English, the film’s phantasmagorical narrative has its effective moments, and Køhnke’s performance often, but not always, captures the descent into madness Charly experiences. He is at his best when working off the three female characters with which Charly interacts: Felicija (Siff Andersson), a Copenhagen punk he picks up in a bar and has rough sex with, and who is one of the highlights of the film, Chloe (Sabrina Ferguen), a prostitute with whom he would rather talk (and with whom he begins to reveal his own dark side), and, through flashbacks, Amy, who is not at all who Charly or the audience thinks. The big reveal when Charly finally remembers what happened to Amy is interesting, but not quite the payoff the film hopes it is.

If one enjoys slow burn psychological films, there is much here to enjoy in Victim of Love, but the largest criticism one can make of this film is that it tries too hard in all ways. It wants to be Repulsion meets The Vanishing, but is too insistent. The sound design is intrusive. When Charly moves down a hotel corridor to the room he and Amy stayed in, having heard noises coming through the wall, what could have been an uncanny and disturbing moment that builds tension instead echoes with a blaring noise worthy of an action film. A subtle, quieter, more nuanced approach would have been so much more effective.

Likewise, later in the film, Charly wakes up with blood on his shirt and his knuckles cut. The soundtrack blares overwhelming noise, but the effect is not to overwhelm the audience but distract us from the growing horror in Charly that he does not always occupy his own skull. I am not afraid for him – I’m annoyed at the soundtrack. The film then cuts to a flashback of the night before when Charly beats two men in an alley outside a bar, but the men neither fight back nor seem to be filled with horror at what is happening to them.

Victim of Love also seems to be shot through a constant haze. Not only is Copenhagen misty, so is every bar, club, hotel room and street. As with the sound, lighting becomes intrusive, lens flares calling attention to themselves. I understand what the filmmaker was going for, but I do not think it serves the narrative. Lastly, the film lapses into a lack of both narrative and visual consistency. Charly may be losing his mind, but the audience should not wonder why the story has leapt from one setting to another with no explanation.

Victim of Love is not a bad film; it is also not the truly great film it aspires to be. But it does show promise. It has its fans, I know, but I cannot count myself among them. Give it a chance, but you have been warned.

Victim of Love, is coming to Digital HD on July 20 and DVD on August 10 from Indican Pictures.

5 out of 10