***SPOILERS*** What looks like an Australian version of the notorious 1924 Loab & Leopold case the film "Like Minds" has non conformist prep religious school student Alex Forbes, Eddie Redmayne, get matched up as roommates with this freaked out and blood obsessed weirdo Nigel Colbie, Tom Sturridge, who he's now,at the start of the movie,accused of murdering.Being interviewed by top police psychiatrist Sally Rowe, Toni Collette, Alex staunchly maintains his innocence and claims that it was the dead Nigel's fault in that he desperately wanted it,to get murdered in life, so he can have eternal life after death! I told you the guy was weird! At first Sally feels that Alex is just pulling her leg but as he brings out the relationship he had with Nigel she starts to have second thoughts. It turns out that Nigel was as nutty as a Mediterranean fruit fly and that nuttiness stemmed with his obsession with the 12th Century Knights Temple's that he claims that both he and Alex are direct descendants of!Alex who at first tried to distance himself for Nigel, who for some strange reason called him Jack throughout the movie, slowly gravities towards him and his crazy ideas about the two being some kind of blood brothers who have a secret and holy mission to fulfill in life! Revive the ancient order of the Knight Templers by among other things offering up human sacrifices to them every now and then when the time is right! This murderous as well as idiotic idea on Nigel's part takes root when after getting the two together Nigel murders Susan Mueller, Kate Maberly, and frames her boyfriend Alex for it! Now in a real pickle Alex is forced to do Nigel's bidding in that he's got something, Susan's murder,over his head. Meanwhile later in the movie Nigel is caught in bed with his mom Helen Colbie,Cathryn Bradshaw, by his both shocked and outraged dad John Colbie,David Threfall,and in all the confusion the two, mom & Dad, end up dead both blasted by the family shotgun with poor Nigel at age 17 left orphaned!***SPOILERS*** The conclusion to this sad and crazy story has Nigel get himself shot by his good and reluctant friend Alex on the railroad tracks outside the prep school that the two attended! By now with no real evidence against him murdering Nigel Alex is set free and to do as he pleases. Which turns out to continue the dead Nigel's insane and evil plan to consummate his mock marriage with the late Susam Muller who's been dead & buried for over a year! In the end Nigel got his wish in getting the by now totally deranged Alex to see things his way even if he's not around to see them himself!

Private school limits, stuffy atmosphere, secret societies, generation issues - when all combined, you could create a plot similar to Like Minds' one. It is all interesting to watch in the beginning, but the more the events develop the more crazy and "jobbish" they become. Luckily to me, all the bad events really took place - I am not into films when something is twisted in someone' s mind and imagination.The cast is strong and all the main stars are great: Toni Collette as Sally Rowe, Eddie Redmayne as Alex Forbes and Tom Sturridge as Nigel Colbie. Ms Collette is a real gifted star, but the two young males are worth remembering as well as their prior and later performances have demonstrated their talents.In short, Like Minds is quite OK, but it is still no e.g. Usual Suspects. Could be interesting for younger audiences though (hopefully not as an example).

This movie is simply beautiful. The colour palette reminiscent of a cold stainless steel morgue or the impersonal fluorescent lights in a inner city waiting room sets a sterile stage for a sparely-acted cold-blooded autopsy. The characters bring to mind, at different points, Thomas Harris' Hannibal Rising and John Knowles' A Separate Peace. There's a current of knife-edge homo-eroticism running beneath the bloodless bodies and half-hearted allusions to conspiracy and myth. However, sadly enough, the whole supposed moving force with the order, the Cathars and the Knights Templar is never fully explained, and detracts from the tensions between the two boys. In addition, the ending is far too vague. What was the inspector really up to? What is the involvement with the adults' "club"? What's which the playing card? I realize the director probably wanted to leave the ending open to discussion, but one finds it a little too vague. Has Nigel's "purpose" moved on to Alex? Was Alex really the one at fault the entire time? Are the boys so "like" that there is no one or the other? In conclusion,this potentially excellent exploration of the relationship between two disturbed boys is subtracted from by the attempt at a suspense film ending. A beautiful picture, but at the end of the equation, a disappointing result. Watch it, revel in it, but expect to realize it could have been so much more. 8/10

Public schoolboy Nigel Colby (Tom Sturridge) is found dead. His head has been blown off. Arrogant rich kid Alex (Eddie Redmayne) is found standing over the body with a shotgun, but he denies committing murder. As Alex is a minor, criminal psychologist Sally (Toni Collette) is asked to determine whether the boy should be charged with the murder of his schoolfriend. As Alex tells his story, flashbacks reveal the truth of what happened and the shifting relationship between the two boys. Or do they? Who is insane here? Nigel? Alex? Or maybe both?I checked the cinema listings last Friday, and bored to tears with the thought of seeing a summer blockbuster, I opted for this, primarily on the basis that it featured Toni Collette, who is never less than interesting in every film she has appeared in.I'd never heard of "Like Minds". It has not had a major cinema release in the UK, which is a shame, because it's not a bad film, just a bit derivative. A low key mix of "Murder By Numbers" and "Primal Fear" set in an (English?) public school. It is a thriller, but it is also all about the shifting of control and domination and obsession.Toni Collette and Richard Roxburgh are not top billed, and that is correct, because their parts are really just extended cameos. The film belongs to Eddie Redmayne and Tom Sturridge as Alex and Nigel. Both good, otherworldly performances, especially by Eddie Redmayne.I think that "Like Minds" is worth a look.