Karla

I'm rarely a fan of one star ratings, as they are usually reserved for the ignorant, uncultured, or extremely bored. This time, I'm afraid, there really is no choice but to rate this as lowly as possible. The truth of who this woman is was not demonstrated in this film, and that served to inappropriately victimize a naturally born psychopath while barely paying respect to the victims: Tammy Homolka, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. This murderess is portrayed as a classic Stockholm's sufferer, but the overwhelming evidence proved she was anything but. I know I'm writing this in 2020, and this film was made a little over 10 years prior, but it doesn't erase the fact that we need to stop telling stories like this unless they are true to the facts and serve to respect and pay homage to the victims. When you can walk away from a true crime story without quite remembering the names of the victims, the story has failed. Everyone involved with this production should be ashamed. I refused to finish out of respect for Leslie, Kristen, Tammy, and loved ones still reeling from this unbelievable nightmare created by two narcissistic, psychopathic bags of flesh and bone.

Paul Bernardo - probably one of the cruellest serial killers that ever existed. Around 50% of the votes cast so far are 1 and this is understandable, as the subject matter in the movie is probably the darkest and most disturbing that any movie could possibly be- and to make matters worse, its all true. There is a relentless hate for this movie and people are going to vote 1 just to try to discourage other from seeing it, to try and teach Hollywood to stay out of producing tragic events, but where were the 1's for other movies profiting off tragedies, like Schindler's List, Titanic or Monster? Before seeing it, I read from others that the acting in the movie was great, I didn't take the comments seriously, but after seeing it, I am totally impressed with Laura Preppon's talent- I never thought of her as a good actor. She IS Karla Homolka, and although she won't win any Oscars for this role, she has undoubtedly impressed many other critics who may have never suspected she had this talent within her. The only major difference between Karla and Laura is that Homolka was a very small woman- 5'2 or so, while Laura is very tall, 5'11. When watching the introducing scene, I had doubts about how good Misha Collins would be, but by the time we reached the first perversion, he turns out to be quite a good actor, although I'd say Preppon definitely gives a better performance. People object to this movie for many reasons, and one is that some believe it's too sympathetic to Karla, but I would disagree. True, it is narrated from real life transcripts that Karla gave to her pscyhiatrist,and many see that as a reason to distrust the movie, but what she tells and what we see are sometimes different and the movie does NOT omit ANY of the evil deeds she committed. However, A LOT of the sadistic things that Paul did were omitted in this brief 81 minute movie- and that is why I called it a 'toned-down' version of the gruesome events, more toned-down that most people would suspect it would be. In this way, the violence is not gratuitous, but there are *surprise!* many cringe-inducing moments. One flaw I see in this movie is the improper allocation of time to various events. The movie covers 90% of the key events, but there was no mention of the videotapes being found, (which completely turned the case upside-down) nor was there any time giving us background information about Bernardo or Holmolka, which we see in other serial killer movies like Monster (we see Aileen as a teenager). I may be wrong, but I think the chronological order between various events may have been shuffled in one case, but probably for editing reasons. I doubt any reviews that IMDb can offer will make a difference in whether one sees it or not, as either you can tolerate watching difficult things or you cannot. However, I agree with CBC's review that is 'an above-average' movie and while being tough to watch, it can also be a tool to reinforce the message that appearances can be deceiving.

Based on an infamous real-life case, "Karla" tells the story of a woman named Karla Homolka (Laura Prepon) who gets involved with an upwardly mobile and superficially charming Paul Bernardo (Misha Collins), a man who evaded arrest as the real-life "Scarborough Rapist". In the film, the two hunt down several young girls who are eventually murdered, either by Karla or by Paul. The attacks took place, and the movie is set, in Ontario, Canada, near Toronto. The time period is the early 1990s.

What I find annoying here is the script's POV and plot structure. The entire film is told from Homolka's point of view which, not surprisingly, minimizes her involvement in the various crimes, and to some extent paints her as something of an abused victim of Bernardo. Further, the awful crimes are told in flashback, as she relates them to a prison psychiatrist. These in-house prison scenes are dull and slow. Though Homolka no doubt bears a lot of responsibility for what happened, the real devil here is Paul Bernardo. And the script should have been a straightforward rendering of the murders wherein both Karla and Paul were present.

Casting and acting are fine. Photography contains a lot of side lighting, which casts a gloomy mood over many scenes. Some of the music is eerie and ominous, which foreshadows oncoming dreadful actions.

There was at least one attempt to ban this film, which would have amounted to censorship. Many viewers hate this movie because they feel like it's an attempt to capitalize on human suffering. But many crime films are based on true-life murders and other non-fiction tragedies.

The appropriate audience for this film would be viewers who are interested in true crime, and who can look dispassionately on the people involved, including villains. I'm glad I saw "Karla" because it is based on a real-life case, but I don't think I want to watch it again.

Karla was difficult to watch. Not necessarily because of the subject matter or that it's based on real events. No. It was difficult to watch because they tried to make you feel bad for Karla. The woman knowingly married a serial rapist. She willingly made a gift of her younger sister to him. The same sister that died because of it. Not to mention she participated in the rape and murder of several children and managed to cop a plea deal on the whole thing when caught by concealing evidence along with help from her lawyer.

Karla Homolka was not a victim. She was a willing participant and any attempt to turn her into a sympathetic character is just pissing on the graves of the people she helped to kill.

I did like the acting because I think it gave Laura Prepon a chance to get out of her "Donna" persona and I think Misha Collins is good as well. Both are young actors and gave a good performance as being both seemingly the perfect couple and the cold people that they were portraying.

I don't blame the Canadian people for being upset. I do not know much about the Canadian Justice system, but I can say this; they are doing something correct because they have fewer social problems than the US does and I do believe they are more proactive with their judicial system as in actually having real rehab instead of pretend rehab.

I have always thought that making a movie or TV show without the victim's families permission is wrong unless there is a big lesson that people need to learn from. Many parents will give permission to TV to warn kids and parents of dangers of somethings, but to do a movie about real events without consent is appalling. Canadians seem more quieter than we are in the US and no Hollywood filmmaker had any right to do that without the victims permission.

Some stories should be told because we as citizens of this world should learn from them. But, I have a hard time seeing what good could come of this story, EXCEPT Laura's performance of Karla as NOT being a victim like she has said she was. She had people she could go to. I really just wanted to see how Laura would do with this character, I felt terrible for the families.