Taking Lives

Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke. Warner Bros, 2004

Had the makings of a truly edgy psychological thriller, but fell somewhat short. Great idea though: a serial killer who assumes his victim's identities and lives their lives for a few extra years until he moves on to someone else - that is a great premise. Unfortunately, THAT story is subordinated to this Jolie-vehicle, which does nothing but cash in on her star-power. Not that it unnecessarily exploits her fame, but let's just say her character really does nothing for the story and even the scene where she reveals her angst, her raison-d'etre, for this job, we're left wondering "Is this movie about tracking down a serial killer or about watching Angelina's watery eyes and big lips for two hours?"

That said, the setting was great: Montreal - and it was nice to have a detective story that isn't set in one of the great US cities. That brings a nice, almost European flavour, to the tale.

And I must say, Ethan Hawke played his part fairly well . . . but only IF the director and writer KNEW that this audience would figure out that he was the killer from the beginning and just wanted to see how long his character was willing to put up with this charade. Now, if these makers really truly believed that we'd be duped into one instant thinking that Keifer Sutherland was the killer, then the movie is guilty of insulting our intelligence and Hawke's interpretation of the role becomes cartoonish.

To wrap up: great premise - but this should have been a movie that focused on the killer, and not on Angelina's lips.

VG