Even with a large portion of the movie being scenes of discussions, with dialogues that sometimes sound unnatural from some of the actors, the movie perfectly builds tension and delivers a creepy finale that provides a bit of change to the original story yet arguably makes it better. The changes are minimalistic and give the ambitious killer much more agency in a non-contrived way. I don't think it's hard to argue that it's much better than someone reading a letter from the bottle.
The chosen location in Crimea was marvelous and truly makes the mansion feel like some Alcatraz, where the judgement is going to be served to inmates. Romashin and Kaydanovskiy are the highlight of the ensemble, perfectly acting out the transition from confident studs who don't care if someone knows about their crimes to paranoid, anxious wrecks.
The chosen location in Crimea was marvelous and truly makes the mansion feel like some Alcatraz, where the judgement is going to be served to inmates. Romashin and Kaydanovskiy are the highlight of the ensemble, perfectly acting out the transition from confident studs who don't care if someone knows about their crimes to paranoid, anxious wrecks.