There was a revealing moment early in "Memories of a Murder" (a.k.a., "Souvenirs") when a package that arrived at the Morbid Curiosities shop run by young Gail Niven included a copy of Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment." The film itself was about that topic, and it strove to emulate the exceedingly dark tone of Dostoevsky's psychological novel.

Unfortunately, the mechanics of the film kept exposing themselves as contrived and artificial without any genuine probing of the themes of crime and punishment. The best scene in the film was the visit of Gail to a prison where she met Garret Wayne Stubbs, a serial killer, who turns out to be her father. There was excellent tension and an eerie credibility in that scene.

But the rest of the film was muddled and unconvincing, especially in the portrayal of Gail's eccentric and deeply troubled grandmother, Margot, and the character of Janice Roseland, the alleged detective from Traverse City. Nothing seemed to add up to reveal the essence of those characters who became the bane of Gail's life.

The film never achieved a uniform style other than a quirkiness and overall unpleasantness. The weak denouement never even resolved the situation of Gail's status at the university. She was admitted, but will she ever attend and finally shut down the Morbid Curiosities shop?

Dream, with narcississtic undertone, in a story about a young female bound to her disabled grandmother, managing the shop of murdermerorablia.

Its a small cast movie, with actors that doesnt, except for the lead female, slam the table with good acting. Their dictation though has been trained and you wont need cc's to watch due to their excellent linguistic work. But great dynamics and good realistic dialouges works.

Productionwise its a lowbudget, nice production managed movie, with great camera moves, a shroudded story, with twists that reveals secrets that would make even you scared if real life.

So a little thriller it is, almost psychological horror made on a dime, a result that makes the grumpy old man recommend.

Mot at all what I was expecting. Not a horror movie but an engrossing psychological thriller with a strong cast of unknowns working from a well developed script. This deserves to be seen. It isn't perfect but it is a close to perfect as a low budget indie thriller gets. Highly recommended.