Malice (Amazon Prime Video) is a psychological thriller in which comedian Jack Whitehall plays the psycho. How did this casting happen? It’s like watching an Attenborough film of wildebeest moving across the Serengeti and in the middle of them there’s a man dressed in a penguin suit.
During all of his scenes, in which he plays a tutor who inveigles his way into the lives of a wealthy family at their Greek holiday villa, your brain will be screaming: “But it’s Jack Whitehall!” Especially in a scene where he strangles a cat.
I did enjoy it, mind you. Mercifully, it’s a drama that doesn’t take itself very seriously. It’s sunny and silly. David Duchovny, who plays the father of the family, looks as if he’s having a ball. His character, Jamie Tanner, is a ruthless, libidinous venture capitalist, married to Nat (Carice van Houten). The Tanners have invited their London friends to holiday with them, and the friends have brought a tutor along because daughter Millie has flunked her mocks. This is a very specific level of middle-class wealth.
Adam (Whitehall) is a hit with the kids, because he organises games and makes Ancient Greek history sound fun, and a hit with the wives, because he’s charming, rustles up “gin-a-colada” cocktails and has defined abs. “But it’s Jack Whitehall,” that voice inside your head says as they lust over his shirtless form during a boat trip. This is the man who has made a career out of being poshly, boyishly awkward.
It soon becomes clear that Adam is here because he has a vendetta against Jamie. The history between them is not revealed in the early episodes – only two were made available to reviewers – so we’re in the dark about the source of this hatred. There are shades of Nineties film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle as Adam schemes away while acting as the perfect help.
With the exception of Duchovny and van Houten, the cast is British. And so is the script. I’m pretty sure Adam is the only screen psychopath who describes sex as “bonking”. And here he is on the Greek gods: “Zeus basically tried to shag anything… by today’s standards, I think the king of the gods would quite rightly find himself cancelled.”
The most jarring moments are when Whitehall attempts to be menacing. A seasoned dramatic actor could do something with a scene in which Adam batters an octopus against a hard surface to tenderise the meat. Ditto the cat scene. When Adam says: “Foodies,” to lure kitty towards him, it just gives you the ick.
But in the end it sort of works. You’re watching a character who knows he shouldn’t really be there, played by a man who knows he shouldn’t really be there. Look at it that way, and perhaps the casting is a stroke of genius.
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