Laura, based on the novel by Vera Caspary

Laura, based on the novel by Vera Caspary

                Laura is a fascinating thriller, but also a very good, complex love story.

                The debut of the film is intriguing.

                We see that the hero of the film is dead.

The motion picture is called Laura, hence that is the character it is supposed to be about and yet…she just died.

Laura Hunt was killed and a suspicious detective, Mark McPherson is in charge with the investigation.

He is questioning the entourage and everyone is a suspect, until the circle is narrowed down to the killer.

Mark McPherson appears to use the method patented by a brilliant psychologist called Amos Tversky:

Elimination by Aspects

The detective is in awe with the dead woman, who had been a very beautiful, gorgeous “dame”.

The latter is a word used by McPherson and he is ridiculed for that by another important character:

                Waldo Lydecker.

                This is a columnist with peculiar, pretentious attitude and habits.

He writes in his bath, thinks the world of himself and acts like a replica of Donald Trump, only with a vocabulary.

Indeed, the leader of the free world uses a very limited dictionary, of all presidents, the current one is at the level of a child, with his speech patterns.

Waldo Lydecker is obnoxious, self-absorbed, but he is well educated and responsible for the evolution of the hero.

The writer tells the story of Laura, her arrival at his lunch table, where she asked the famous journalist to endorse her work.

In the first instance, the self-indulgent man dismissed the woman, who then said she feels sorry for him.

She states that she thought he had feelings that she admired in his column, but it is now obvious he does not.

When she talks about emotions, the writer responds along the lines of: “yes, as long as they are paid with 50 cents the word”

Nevertheless, after this confrontation, the older man feels he had been overdoing his maleficence and tries to apologize.

An inappropriate bond develops, with the much older man becoming increasingly infatuated with Laura.

It is not very absurd, for there is a mentor quality in Waldo that benefits his friend who gains more knowledge.

However, the columnist is not satisfied with a platonic engagement and feels he has rights over his protégé.

When Laura sees other men, Waldo is infuriated and when she becomes too attached to Shelby Carpenter a climax is reached.

Without details that would constitute a spoiler alert, there are reasons to suspect the disappointed Waldo Lydecker.

Equally, Shelby Carpenter is not beyond any doubt, given the fact that he engaged in another relationship, while he was going to be married with the deceased.

A coup de theater arrives way before the end of this emotional drama, when the identity of the dead woman is discovered.

Laura was not dead, a young woman was murdered in her place, but the killer thought he was killing the person he loved…or maybe hated.

This is just one astonishing piece of the puzzle that detective McPherson has to elucidate to solve the murder mystery.

Laura is a jubilant love story on top of the crime narrative, for a true romance is born out of the horror of the early killing.