Sometimes, crime drama/suspense movies are real blockbusters. Silence of the Lambs, the Psycho series, and The Bone Collector ring true in our minds as marvelous pieces.
Sometimes, however, crime drama/suspense movies are utter tripe. I'm sure we've all seen some piece of hardboiled detective bilge that we'd never want to see again.
The Watcher fits somewhere in the middle. It combines terrible, contrived plot lines with some magnificently suspenseful elements and a mix of acting capabilities.
An L.A. detective, pretty much hooked on various painkillers, has moved to Chicago to escape the strain of his earlier job when he pursued a serial killer. Unfortunately, the serial killer has followed him to Chicago to begin his spree anew.
It is from this that a rather innovative game of serial murder begins. The killer selects one target almost at random, sticking to young, attractive, yet somehow societally inept women (already there's a reality lapse...what these attractive women are doing home alone talking to their cats is beyond me.) and sending a photo of them to the L.A. detective, who has apparently been co-opted into the Chicago P.D.
Once the photo has been shipped and received, the police have until nine P.M. Chicago time to locate the young woman in question. Thankfully, the killer operates in the Chicagoland area, and thus narrows down the police's search radius. The Chicago cops, portrayed as somewhat hard-nosed yet extremely efficient, fan out across the city, and even the media is cooperative as they spread the face of the victim-to-be.
There's an interesting comment on society here, as so many people walk by the officers without sparing them or their photos so much as a second glance. Restaurant waiters, when questioned about one of the victims-to-be, "make it a point to pay as little attention to the customers as possible." Just after one of the murders, someone steps on the photo of the victim, not even acknowledging its existance. The murderer makes mention of how we're "all stacked on top of each other, barely noticing one another."
When you add it all up, what do you get? You get some hackneyed events, some really scary parts, some really bang-up acting on behalf of the main character (James Spader, I thought it was, but don't hold me to it) and his fellow police cohorts, and some really lousy acting on behalf of Marisa Tomei (who, by the way, is NOT aging well) and Keanu Reeves (Good GOD, Keanu! Wasn't I just praising your skill in The Matrix? And now you're trying to play a philosophical yet beer-swilling serial killer??). All in all, it's a pretty fair movie if you're willing to allow Keanu a little leeway and let a few logic lapses slip by for the sake of the plot. The scary bits really throw a charge into the film, and I'm sorry, but I LOVE that whole timed aspect of things. That whole "will-they-find-her-or-won't-they?" question really made me watch.
I'd rate it above average if I could...it's not SO good to merit a good rating, but average is selling it just a bit shorter than it deserves.
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Production Year: 2002 - Thriller - Director: Bharat Nalluri, Rob Bailey, Andy Wilson - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, David Oyelowo, Peter Firth, Jenny Agutter, Lisa Faulkner
Thriller - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Timothy West, Neil Morrissey, Tara Fitzgerald, Annette Crosbie, Pauline Quirke, Rob Brydon, Denise Van Outen, John Thomson, Kevin Whately, David Suchet
Detailed! Cheers! Personally I'm a Keanu fan and cannot imagine him not being fantastic in anything, and logic slips are what films are about, so I probably will see it, but at least I know not to expect the brilliant all-round film my friends tell me about. x
FBI agent Joel Campbell (James Spader) has gone into hiding. Traumatized and beaten down ... more
after years of pursuing psychotic killers in Los Angeles he is trying to carve a new less stressful life for himself in Chicago. But his guilty past follows him....
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![The Watcher [DVD] [2001]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78523042.jpg "The Watcher [DVD] [2001]")
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