| Bilgi :The dreaded Hollywood movie that details the murderous activities of infamous couple Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo is finally out in Ontario, but it might as well have stayed on the shelves. More suited for the small screen, “Karla” is pretty much a detailed memoir by Homolka (Laura Prepon from “That ’70s Show”) of her relationship with Bernardo (Misha Collins) and the event that led to the murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French in 1991-2.
The movie starts with Karla in her jai cell and through her own words we learn of her first encounter with Bernardo in a bar, and their sadistic/masochistic relationship. It’s clear that Bernardo is the instigator and abuser, but Homolka doesn’t resist much, especially when it comes to sacrificing her own 15-year-old sister to him during some pretty harrowing sequences which, as we learn, lead to Tammy’s death. I don’t know how Homolka’s family still talks to her.
“Karla” tends to justify Homolka’s assertion that she was more the victim in the relationship than the abuser, but I don’t buy it. Even in the film she shows plenty of opportunity to stop the crimes, but she willingly stays to please her sadistic partner. As to Collins, he’s the embodiment of Bernardo with his pretty looks but psychotic glare and demeanour.
Though we have to endure the torture and murder of an unknown woman, we thankfully are sparred the Mahaffy and French ones (whose names are, strangely, changed). Perhaps this was the producers’ way of “softening” the blow for the families.
Because we only see one side of the events, “Karla” rings unconvincing and sensationalistic. Director Joel Bender makes it a point not to dwell on the “graphic” aspects of the crime, but the scenes that are there even peripherally for us to grasp make the experience eerie and exploitive.
There’s little question that the film, which will be playing in only 20 theatres, will attract audiences. But they’ll learn very little of what we already know from the papers. The story is lurid enough to perhaps do better in the U.S., but here the tragedy is too close to home to grasp. | 
