Taking Lives - Director's Cut (2004)

Taking Time

I have no idea why this movie was on my Netflix list, but after watching all those Ashley Judd movies I figure Angelina Jolie deserves at least as much of a chance.

Taking Lives is the usual FBI agent stalks the serial killer plot. Pretty/creepy FBI agent, Illeana (Angelina Jolie) is a drop-dead hottie who wears a wedding ring to avoid men asking her out, turns down everyone who asks her out, and likes to sleep in graves to literally walk in the footsteps of her victims. You see, Illeana is the best agent for this sort of case, and presumably anyone interested in catching a serial killer has to be a little strange herself. This supposed brilliance almost never actually appears in the film, unless you count breathless close-ups of Illeana staring at pictures or laying in graves.

Illeana is pursuing a serial killer. This serial killer takes peoples' lives and lives in them, "like a hermit crab." He looks for single men with few attachments who won't be missed for months at a time. Why? Because his mother, Mrs. Asher (Gena Rowlands), believed her son killed his twin brother in a boating accident and kept him locked up in the basement for years at a time. So our bad guy wants to live other peoples' lives because...he has really, really low self-esteem. Sure, okay.

For reasons that seem only to further muddle the plot, all this takes place in Canada. There are several actors in Taking Lives who are most assuredly esteemed thespians in their home country but come off stilted, hostile, and apathetic when speaking English. These angry Canadians are unhappy about an American taking over their case and they're not afraid to speak French around Illeana to let her know it. They showed her!

There are a multitude of problems with this film. It has a really cool ending which doesn't make up for the plodding pace, the ridiculous plot twists, or the leaden acting. Phillip Glass is not the composer for a neo-noir film that needs a dramatic, slow build - his music is too sweeping, too lighthearted, too commercial. There's also a crazy violent sex scene that shows quite a bit of Jolie and seems to exist primarily to boost interest in the film at its nadir.

Taking Lives performs more acrobatics than Illeana in the bedroom to convince us of its plot twists. At one point, a supposedly dead character is propped up by the real bad guy to look like he's committing a crime. Only the shot is CLEARLY of a living person holding a gun to the faux victim's head, and a flashback shows quite a different scene. In other words, Taking Lives simply cheats to pull off its plot twist that we all saw coming a mile away because there's no way the film is going to end in just an hour.

With a subdued Jolie, a bizarre appearance by Kiefer Sutherland, lack of chemistry between the two leads, and a supporting cast that doesn't speak English as their first language, Taking Lives would make for a boring movie even if it were an action film. As a slow-building drama it can barely stir to life. May 24, 2008

Searching for a Serial Killer

A man is struck on a highway. Another man takes his wallet and hits his face with a rock. We see newspaper reports of other dead men. Is there a connection between them? (Is the height of 5'10" average?) Then a woman goes to the police, she has seen her dangerous son. The Montreal police have sent for an expert; she gives her opinions about the killer (profiling). Then there is a fresh killing with a witness. The police question the witness about the murder. [Is there corroboration?] A tip brings them to a suspect's empty apartment. But is it empty? More leads turn up and have to be investigated. One involves exhuming a body, the bones testify to an identity. Special Agent Scott discovers a clue about the killer, and theorizes what caused the murders.

Will the trap set by the police catch the killer? If it fails will they try again? There is a very dramatic scene and a chase that seems too clever. The plan to send the witness away goes awry. The scenes seem incredible, as if the story was changed for dramatic action. [But the time element says there is more to this story.] We soon learn about the shocking surprise to this story. The chase is on again. Can they find a needle in the haystack? Agent Scott leaves for a new life. [Believable?] There is another shocking surprise at the end of this story. [Credible to you?]

A better plot, less overly complicated and more believable, would make a better film. There was no reference or use of scientific evidence gathering in this story about an unseen killer. May 7, 2008

intelligent thriller (4.9/5)

i thought this was a very intelligent,well written thriller.the music
puts you on edge from the beginning.the movie has a great dark
atmosphere.there are enough red herrings to keep you guessing,and some
great intensity.this is a very dark,disturbing movie and is also very
graphic at times.to me,this was much better than your standard crime
drama/mystery/thriller.i liked Angelina Jolie's performance as an FBI
profiler .her performance is very subdued,almost sublime,and it
works,in my opinion.the best serial killer movie ever made,in my
mind,is Copycat,at least so far.this one isn't quite as intense,but
it's still a great movie.Like the Bone Collector,also starring Angelina
Jolie(and Denzel Washington)i'd have to rate taking Lives a 4.9/5 March 3, 2008

Killing Time

There's an old expression that claims, "In Hell, the chefs are English, the engineers are Italian, and the comedians are Swiss." Perhaps it's time to add, "Film murder mysteries are Canadian." Test this theory out sometime. The next time you're watching an alleged thriller and find yourself checking to see if Reno 911 is on, look carefully for telltale signs of Canadian-ism. Casual flipping back and forth between French and English? An uncomfortably high number of ice hockey references? Back bacon omnipresent? If your thriller has had a thrill-ectomy, chances are good it's flying a maple leaf flag.

As with comedy, cliff diving, and juggling machetes - thrillers live or die with timing. Canadian thrillers almost invariably use 10 beats where 4 would have been too many and 2 not quite enough. Dramatic tension, creepiness, and anxiety must be cared for and nourished, like pets, if one expects them to survive the long fallow periods separating gruesome revelations. Take a movie like Seven, for instance - almost a textbook example of perfect timing and the gradual escalation of anxiety until it reaches unbearable extremes. If 7 is a 10, Taking Lives is a 4 in the timing department.

The biggest disappointment of this film is that it squanders a very interesting idea. The killer sheds identities like snakeskins, taking over the lives of his victims, moving sequentially through an ongoing chain of assumed personalities. This is a fascinating psychological profile, way above average for films of this genre. It would have been very interesting to see more of what this involved as our killer grew into the shoes of various people. (You will never again be able to hear the phrase, "Hey, I just noticed we're about the same height," in the same way.) Unfortunately the story is told primarily from the perspective of Angelina Jolie, an American FBI profiler brought in specially for the case because all the Canadian profilers went moose hunting that week.

This movie is not bad, but it's not good either. The location is often underutilized and even misrepresented. Ethan Hawke is good enough; Kiefer Sutherland sticks around long enough to pick up his check, and it's a pleasure to see the great Gena Rowlands, or what's left of her. Taking Lives is dressy to watch and has the requisite number of plot twists, albeit improbable ones. It's good enough to be entertaining. But as far as being a thriller goes, be prepared to get your thrills at about the same pace as maple syrup descends from the lip of an earthenware jug. November 28, 2007

Ok but I've seen better.

Taking Lives starring Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke has a great and scary opening scene although the rest of the film drags and falls flat halfway through but it seems like none of the reviewers liked the ending, I thought the last 10 minutes were just as exciting as the first 10. Jolie plays her character very well, Hawke well he kinda over-acts but Taking Lives does have some frightening moments but overall this film is pretty much forgettable. So be forewarned, you might like it or might hate it, for me it was decent but I probably wouldn't watch it again. October 1, 2007

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