Untraceable Review
by Steve Rhodes (steve DOT rhodes AT internetreviews DOT com)January 25th, 2008
UNTRACEABLE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2008 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): **
Sooooooo predictable, UNBEARABLE, oops I mean UNTRACEABLE, is an infuriating film. With no suspense, no surprises and no rush, its soft core torture porn that has nothing to offer viewers other than the titillation of seeing people being brutalized. Basically SAW LITE, the story's one gimmick recalls a much better film, SPEED. In SPEED, the people on the bus die if the bus's speed gets below fifty miles-per-hour. In UNTRACEABLE, the victims die when enough people visit the killer's website, which broadcasts the murders in real-time on the Internet.
Director Gregory Hoblit has had an excellent track record in making films filled with suspense, including FRACTURE, HART'S WAR, FREQUENCY, FALLEN and PRIMAL FEAR. But, probably because of the inherent lameness of UNTRACEABLE's script by Allison Burnett (RESURRECTING THE CHAMP) and first-time screenwriters Robert Fyvolent and Mark Brinker, Hoblit's latest offering is laughably obvious. Filled with "well, duh" moments, the movie telegraphs every twist so blatantly that you'll not only know what is about to happen, you'll be shaking your head at the stupidity on the screen.
The problems with the film can be summarized by one typical example. When one of the investigators announces on the phone that he has found a key clue, you know two things right away. He will not say what he has found, and he will soon be toast in the most disgusting way possible.
The star of the picture is the usually interesting Diane Lane. Since she got an Academy Award nomination for another "un" movie, UNFAITHFUL, she was probably a good choice for UNTRACEABLE's lead. But her acting chops are never sufficient to overcome the blandness of the movie, which lumbers along between its gory interludes.
As Agent Jennifer Marsh, Lane plays a single mom who works the night shift in an FBI cybercrimes unit in Portland. Being the mother of an eight-year-old girl, she and the girl will, of course -- this is a movie filled with "of courses" -- become potential victims before the film is finished.
Although Marsh investigates crimes that span the globe and usually involve nothing more gruesome than seeing credit card numbers being stolen in cyberspace, the movie concerns an incident that occurs right in her home town and involves murder, not theft.
A killer, who "wants to be caught," as they always do in the movies, starts kidnapping people and taking them to a basement. Using some diabolical device, he arranges for the speed of the victims' horrible deaths to be linked to the number of people who visit a website where the murder is being broadcast live.
Don't be surprised if you find yourself wishing that there was a website you could visit that would make this plodding picture die sooner rather than later.
UNTRACEABLE runs an unbearably long 1:45. It is rated R for "grisly violence and torture, and some language" and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
My son Jeffrey, age 18, gave it **, saying that he found the film's ideas interesting but not the film itself. He found it completely predictable throughout and thought Lane's delivery was too bland. Overall, he thought it was a slow production that never scared him for a second. His girlfriend Yasmin, also 18, liked it a little more (** 1/2). Although she agreed the movie was predictable, she found it chilling and the website idea
interesting.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, January 25, 2008. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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