The Steamy Psychological Thriller Unexpectedly Killing It On Netflix

André Van Duren's "Faithfully Yours" has been a surprise juggernaut for Netflix, landing in the streaming service's top ten viewed titles for the past week. The Dutch drama stars Bracha van Doesburgh as Bodil Backer, a judge who spends the film's 95 minutes investigating the disappearance and apparent murder of her best friend, Isabel Luijten (Elise Schaap). "Faithfully Yours" is a distant thematic cousin to "Fatal Attraction" and "Double Jeopardy." However, its modern Dutch pedigree gives it a distinctly different feel from those slightly older American productions.

The film's title is intentionally ironic, as Isabel and Bodil cheat on their husbands and are consistently dishonest with their spouses. Bodil lies to nearly everyone, including the police. The primary suspects in Isabel's disappearance are Bodil's sister Yara (Hannah Hoekstra) and Isabel's husband Luuk (Gijs Naber), although Bodil also comes to suspect her own husband (Nasrdin Dchar) after discovering that he has recorded some of her encounters with other men. "Faithfully Yours" also stars Matteo Simoni as Dr. Michael Samuels, a neuroscience professor with whom Bodil engages in one of her many extramarital affairs.

Bodil finally does unravel the mystery, and the film's final minutes feature an unexpected twist. Karina Adelgaard of Heaven of Horror feels that sophisticated fans of the crime-mystery genre will be able to guess many of the film's surprises ahead of time, including the big reveal at the very end. "Unfortunately, Faithfully Yours is one of those movies that thinks it's cleverer than it is," she wrote. "But then beyond that, there are a couple of niggling plot inconsistencies and a really poor third act."

Roger Moore of Roger's Movie Nation disagreed wholeheartedly with Adelgaard regarding the film's conclusion, calling "Faithfully Yours" "a subtly-acted slow-starter, with a fine, flashy finish, a solid genre piece that never quite crosses over into riveting." He specifically praised the film's plot construction and third-act reveals, along with André Van Duren's writing and Bracha van Doesburgh's performance as Bodil. "'Faithfully Yours' is mysterious enough and thoughtfully plotted enough to hold one's interest," he wrote, "I know it held mine."