SnoopyStyle
In London, Harry Donovan (Jason Patric) is arrested for the murder of a Rembrandt owner. The movie flashes back four months earlier. Harry is an art forger in NYC struggling to get his own work noticed. He's approached by three mystery men to paint a Rembrandt for $500k. He goes to Amsterdam to study Rembrandt and decides to fake a lost picture. In Paris, he gets romantic with Marieke van den Broeck (Irène Jacob) who claims to be a student. She unwittingly helps him. However it turns out that she is the pre-eminent Rembrandt expert and she is the only one who won't authenticate his picture.The movie is solid for the first half. Then the movie suggests that Harry killed the Japanese guy. It makes it impossible to root for Harry. The movie should show the bad guy killing the Japanese dude after Harry leaves right at that point. It's not a worthy mystery to keep if it takes away the rooting interest. Also the court case and everything afterward is too rushed. There is no case against the villain other than the testimony of his co-conspirator. The defense seems to hinge on proving the picture as a fake but that proves nothing about the murder. That would change his motivation but the murder still stands. Once the courtroom scene starts, the movie stops making sense.
ruuk
I just saw this piece on Czech TV. Although it was somewhat spoiled by translation, it caught my attention from the beginning till the finale. The cooperation of editing and screenplay is very good, it made me feel like watching some James Bond movies ... except this one was based on art, of course. I also loved the pace of this pleasantly surprising film, it flew with no significant faults. There are many films on TV in our country and majority of them are pure crap. Especially when you see them on midnight hour. This one was really pleasant and I am glad I spent my time with it.7/10 Really watchable !
jcanettis
"Incognito" is one of those gems that you have to dig deep to discover. A relatively unknown movie, I bumped onto it as it was shown on the TV: I started viewing it hoping it to be at least watchable, and I was pleasantly surprised to realize that in fact it was really good.The story is about a highly talented arts forger (Patrick), who agrees to paint a fake Rembrandt picture for $500,000. However, things get complicated when a girl he sleeps with (Jacob) happens to be one of the experts to judge its authenticity, and she gives the painting thumbs down. As if this were not enough, his employers change their tune with him, and this is when everything turns rather sour...Jason Patrick is really good in his role; so good in fact, that I re-aligned my overall rating for him completely after this movie (it wasn't that high before that, as you can imagine). Irene Jacob is also good as his girlfriend, while Rod Steiger plays a small role but still manages to remind us of his grand standing. The film is well-directed, with the pace running smoothly; neither unnecessarily fast, nor boringly slow. All in all, a surprisingly good film: 8/10.
George Parker
An English language foreign intrigue film, "Incognito" sticks Jason Patric in the spotlight as a forger of classical paintings with an attitude who is consigned to paint a Rembrandt while having to juggle pigments and palettes, father/son issues, a lovely art expert (Jacob), a bunch of art dealer/fences, a murder, and eventually a court of law. Though Patric's limited acting ability is evident throughout, there is sufficient material in this film to make it interesting if not engrossing. You'll get to see how a forgery might be done, some good European shooting locations, and Jacob topless while the film examines issues with some depth such as why a forger can't make a legit buck when he paints better than the old master he's forging, etc. Probably a more worthy film than its obvious absence of accolades would suggest, "Incognito" should prove and enjoyable watch for fans of the players and anyone with an interest in classical painting. (B)
AD
