Sunset

Having won an Oscar on debut with Son of Saul (2015), Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes displays laudable ambition with his sophomore outing. Set in Budapest in 1913, the complex, convoluted action recalls The Big Sleep (1946) and The Third Man (1949), although the setting unintentionally evokes memories of Ernst Lubitsch's romantic comedy The Shop around the Corner (1940). Juli Jakab's prodigal orphan returns to the city seeking work at the hat emporium that had belonged to her parents before they perished in a fire (one of many incidents which Nemes and his two co-writers do little to explain). She then discovers the existence of an older sibling, whose involvement with the criminal underworld places her in jeopardy, as the shop anticipates a royal visit to mark its 30th anniversary. The film's production design and costumes couldn't be better, but Matyas Erdely's camerawork occasionally feels capriciously gnomic as it follows Jakab with serpentine, shallow-depth devotion. The events depicted will enthral those eager to fathom the narrative's multifarious mysteries, while driving others to baffled distraction.