W. - The Killer of Flanders Fields (2014)

Apparently "Witse" was a long-running prime time detective show in Belgium. I've never heard of it, but this movie -- set a couple of years after his retirement from the police -- looked like it'd be my jam. I was thinking "The Break" or "Wallander": dark crime balanced with an interesting and decent group of crime fighters.

But Witse doesn't bother with making sure there's light to provide respite from the evil. It just gets on with the solving of the crime and we the audience need to deal with it. It's a pretty decent thriller, but I wound up exhausted with the griminess.

Maybe if this hadn't been my introduction to Witse I would've been able to overlook it, either because I knew what to expect or -- if this isn't the "norm" -- because I was already on board with the hero. Obviously, I'm just guessing since this was my first (and last) sit-down with the guy.

C+