Taking Lives Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)March 19th, 2004
TAKING LIVES
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A woman (Gena Rowlands, "Playing by Heart") reports to police that she saw her son, who had died nineteen years previously, on the ferry that morning. A mutilated body is found at a Montreal construction site. Local police director Hugo Leclair (Tchéky Karyo, "The Core") calls in F.B.I. profiler Special Agent Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie, "Beyond Borders") to assist with the case. His grousing underlings Joseph Paquette (Olivier Martinez, "S.W.A.T.") and Emil Duval (Jean-Hugues Anglade, "Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud") find her lying in their victim's grave site 'sensing' information about the killer. When a local art dealer, James Costa (Ethan Hawke, "Training Day"), witnesses and interrupts a second murder, Illeana connects the dots to surmise that they've got a serial killer operating, who is jumping from identity to identity "Taking Lives."
The phrase 'from the sublime to the ridiculous' was made to describe "Taking Lives," a beautifully produced and directed melange of serial killer thrillers with two major 'twists' set up so preposterously the twist is essential to retain believability. This technically elegant film has an immediate visceral punch, but it is built upon the shakiest foundation.
In a flashback to 1985 we see the birth of a serial killer as teenager in a scene that surprises despite its prominent use in the film's trailer. Opening credits feature extreme closeups of contact lens insertion and hair shaving in the much-used style of "Seven." Scott is introduced as an amalgamation of "Manhunter's" Will Graham and "Silence of the Lamb's" Clarice Starling. She breaks into the home of Mrs. Asher (Rowlands) to find a 'secret room' which turns out to be a "Psycho" style child's bedroom in a Buffalo Bill-creepy basement. In a later scene, Scott receives a head-shaped box, surely meant as an in-joke reference to "Seven's" dark conclusion.
The character of Scott was not present in Michael Pye's novel, but created by screenwriter Jon Bokenkamp. Perhaps this is why an early, central plot point of "Taking Lives" makes little sense after further developments, even though rearrangement of early scene order could have fixed the problem.
Jolie's Scott is an icy mask with a literal eye for detail (Caruso and editor Anne V. Coates use closeups of her shifting glance liberally) until she finds herself falling for her terrified witness. In a reversal of the typical male/female roles, Hawke's Costa is the one in need of protection from the strong, mostly silent Scott. The chemistry between the two is, frankly, another element of "Taking Lives" that requires suspension of disbelief. Martinez and Anglade provide a nice contrast as the cop who is staunchly against Scott's 'touchy-feely' investigative techniques and the more accepting peace-keeper while the normally dependable Karyo add little. Sutherland was apparently cast for his threatening purr of a voice. Veteran Rowlands stuffs her scant screen time with a rich abundance of character definition.
Director D.J. Caruso ("The Salton Sea") almost overcomes plot deficiencies with sheer technical ability, such as linking the killer across decades in two scenes where the outside world is artfully obscured from within a car's interior. In a tense nightclub scene, where Costa is being used as bait, Philip Glass's effective score is mixed into the nightclub din for an eerie, unsettling feel. Cinematography by Amir M. Mokri ("The Salton Sea") is stylish, but location shooting is questionable. While it is refreshing to see a movie filmed in Canada that is actually supposed to take place in that country, one wonders why Québec City's recognizable Chateau Frontenac landmark is plunked into Montréal.
"Taking Lives" is more serial killer dross given a higher gloss than it deserves. It's a popcorn movie that delivers shocks like adrenaline placebos.
C+
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