Bene Cumb De Zaak Alzheimer is a decent crime thriller where "mandatory" elements (dead bodies, shootings, explosions, chases) are in place, but a serious mental illness of a bad guy provides interesting and distinct opportunities to move beyond a trivial cat-and-mouse play. Moreover, flashbacks and retrospects are not annoying/over-exploited, but just in the right place at the right time. The ending is also multiple, not single. However, the inclusion of child abuse issue was probably undue as it is so sensitive issue in Belgium.The cast is rather strong, but not all the characters are elaborated, especially those of policemen. Thus, the catchiest was Jan Decleir as Angelo Ledda, whose making out in different circumstances was interesting to follow. Nevertheless, the film is a pleasant difference from Hollywood crime thrillers, with many nice similarities with Scandinavian ones. Recommended for a broader, different picture.

ltlacey Everything works in this movie. The script is well written, the actors do a fine job and are believable, and the pace never slows. There is a very plausible storyline about a hired killer given an assignment that he does not want to do since he knows he is losing his memory, therefore, does not know if he can pull it off. Second, he's tired of doing this job, but is reminded by another in the profession that what they do there is no retirement (other than death). So he takes the job. The 1st contract he has no qualms about, but the second he does, as it involves killing a child, and this is something he refuses to do as this goes against his value system. In the course of completing the first assignment he comes across a conspiracy to cover up what he considers a total disregard to humanity which is the killing of a child, regardless of the situation that warrants the contract to do so. The movie then centers on 2 law enforcement agencies, at odds with one another (nothing new here, in the movies and in real life), a cover-up that actually includes the government (again nothing new here), and finally a little twist on what would otherwise be your general suspense thriller. Is the bad guy such a bad guy if who he kills are also killers, and especially killers of a child? Shades of Dexter (books and TV show). This is what separates this movie from a lot of others just like it: The moral dilemma of an assassin. There's also a running joke (there are some funny moments in this movie, as in real life in the world of law enforcement) that has to do with BMW cars. Lots of twists and it all does not come together in your usual format.

Robert J. Maxwell Angelo Ledda, an aging hit man, is assigned the task of killing a twelve-year-old girl and finally balks, putting the gang and its aristocrat capo on his trail, as well as Antwerp's finest detectives. Ledda is developing Alzheimer's and this complicates matters, but in the end he gets his just desserts and deliberately leaves behind evidence that leads the police to the Baron who heads the criminals.This is a set up for a Hollywood remake. Hollywood seems to have completely run out of ideas of its own and is now stumbling along on fumes and copies -- "The Departed," "Insomnia," and who knows what all else.It taps into many veins of American interest. Plenty of violence. A nice role for an aging (but not elderly) star on the order of Dustin Hoffman or Jack Nicholson. Lots of opportunities for razzle-dazzle directorial exploits -- negative flashbacks, fast cutting -- because of the onset of an unsettling neurological disease. And then there's Alzheimer's itself, the bugaboo of every aging yuppie who has forgotten an old phone number of the name of an old love.This film isn't especially ambitious. It's a crime thriller and does not beg for sympathy. The hit man has a face that seems to have been modeled out of play-do by a five year old. It does what it sets out to do, and it does it with style and dash. There's a particularly ominous moment when Ledda is sitting in a car holding two honest detectives hostage. The car is surrounded by Antwerp police armed with rifles and laser beams. The dark interior of the BMW seems to be filled with little pink dots that drift across the faces of the guilty and the innocent alike. That scene is a sure target for imitation in the remake.

Cristi_Ciopron All the movies about a tough and doomed man (who is often an outlaw) that is under straitened circumstances,cornered, hunted,need a strong actor:he is Mickey Rourke,or Russell Crowe,or Gabin,Montand, Bogart, Bronson, Kitano--this rank of actors;De Zaak Alzheimer has Jan Decleir as Angelo Ledda,a ferocious,sinister hit-man.Erik Van Looy brings a welcome stream of realism in this class of story. An old and gravely ill assassin,Angelo Ledda,accepts another job, and he murders a businessman,Bob Van Camp (played by Lucas Van Den Eijnde),then he takes away the corpse.An young inspector,Eric Vincke (i.e.,Koen De Bouw),who just dismantled, in a thrilling operation,the business of a father who was trading his own daughter,turning his home into a brothel for pedophiles,must now find the missing Van Camp,whose wife (Els Dottermans) has not a very good opinion about her now disappeared husband.Erik Van Looy's fast paced movie switches from Vincke's itinerary (the pimp's apartment;Van Camp's disappearing;Van Camp's wife;Vincke's chief and colleagues: Tom Coemans and Linda De Leenheer and Freddy Verstuyft,etc.) to Angelo Ledda's:we see the old-man taking a new job,traveling through Anvers,fighting with Bob Van Camp,then almost being caught unawares by his victim's daughter;then,Angelo Ledda visiting his brother, accepting another job,meeting the girls he must now kill,then refusing to murder her,etc.).A very special and notable feature of The Alzheimer Case is its striking and impressing display:the scenes,the characters,the plot,and even the ordinary retorts,the casual lines exchanged by the characters ( Vincke and his mates speaking about a colleague's bottom (that is,Hilde De Baerdemaeker's bottom),or about their chief,or about cars and insurances,and Vincke colliding with the policeman).We are spared from love affairs.The cast is excellent,and the main villain,a Baron (Baron Gustave De Haeck) is,as the political correctness claims it,a very pious Catholic,so the fashionable strong dose of anti-catholicism is delivered promptly by Erik Van Looy.The characters,and the cast,have beautiful names.