Black and Blue is possibly the weakest of the Rebus novels. That is mainly the case because the original murder series is never really investigated and the focus is on the copycat murder which also remains superficial. The novels finishes with too many lose ends. So it was not the best choice for the first adaptation. John Hannah is a convincing Rebus, just the way I imagined him. Rebus' moods, his drinking problems and depressions are really very well depicted and perfectly acted by Hannah and there certainly is a violent and dark streak to him. The story however is fairly weak. We learn nothing about the motives of either murderer- they just do it. That makes the film fairly superficial. It's not that both murderers are flat characters, we just never learn anything about them. It has to be said though that the ending is neater than in the book. All in all, it's a sequence of events that just happen. It's dark but not particularly exciting. Siobhan Clarke becomes a minor character and the chemistry between them is not visible. To some extent that is due to Rebus' prostitute friend who is actually not in the book.
Review of Black and Blue
