“Taking Lives” (Warner Brothers)
Angelina Jolie’s latest film, “Taking Lives,” is another thriller. It seems Hollywood is churning them out in abundance these days with the hope that the twists and turns will make audiences sit up and take notice. Earth to Angelina – this one doesn’t.
It does have an excellent cast and some moments of excitement, but overall this is a run of the mill murder mystery.
Jolie plays Illeana Scott, An FBI agent brought in to help the Montreal police solve a murder. A serial killer is on the loose and several people have been murdered. In what seems like a break in the case, the police find a witness to the latest murder. James Costa (Ethan Hawke) saw the murderer committing the crime and has lived to describe it to the police.
Illeana finds herself drawn to Costa and even asks to be removed from the case since she is so attracted to him. He is also attracted to her and does all he can to help her solve the murder. He even agrees to be used as bait for the killer.
In addition to Jolie and Hawke, the film also features such fine actors as Gena Rowlands, Keifer Sutherland, Olivier Martinez and Tcheky Karyo. This is such a wealth of intelligent actors that you expect to see Meryl Streep cameoing as a body on a morgue slab.
The film is rated R for violence, profanity and brief nudity.
The main problem with “Taking Lives” is there are too many holes in the plot. A film doesn’t have to answer every question, but it is expected to answer the most basic ones like who did it and why. In this film you get the who did it but you never understand the why.
Plus there are scenes like one in which Illeana is attacked in a hidden room. Who was her attacker Where did he come from How long had he been there Another issue is Hawke’s role. After the movie is over the first conclusion is that he was too young for the part. When and if you see the film, you will know what I mean.
When the movie first began I thought we were going to be looking at another “Seven,” one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. But as the film progressed it was obvious these filmmakers weren’t operating at that level.
“Taking Lives” took two hours out of mine, and it wasn’t worth the effort. Angelina started her career off with a bang. Maybe she needs to take some time off and regroup. These different versions of Lara Croft just aren’t making her the next Charlize Theron.
I scored “Taking Lives” a deadly 4 out of 10.
