|
Review by Harvey Karten
2 stars out of 4
With Suspect Zero, director E. Elias Merhige proves that even
a film-maker with the artistic sensibility to knock a fine film like
"Shadow of the Vampire" (a fictional work about the making of
F.W. Murnau's creepy silent "Nosferatu" wherein the audience
must guess whether Max Schreck is an actor playing the role of a
vampire even when the camera stops shooting or an actual
vampire himself), can come up short. His "Suspect Zero" lack
credibility, but that's not a problem since, after all, tales of
mystery and imagination do not have to be down-to-earth
believable. What's wrong is that the picture is so convoluted,
featuring images in the imaginations of an FBI agent and a
former member of the bureau, that we in the audience can
become exhausted simply from trying to piece the bits of puzzle
together.
Zak Penn and Billy Ray's script incorporates just about every
combination and permutation you can think of which are writers'
favorites when they deal with serial killers, bringing to mind David
Fincher's 1995 movie "Seven," about a dedicated detective who
breaks in his replacement during his last week in service but then
stumbles onto the trail of a murderer, and Jonathan Demme's
"The Silecne of the Lambs," about an FBI trainee recruited to get
through to a psychotic criminal.
Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley are the principal focuses of
the story, as FBI Agent Thomas Mackelway and former bureau
officer Ben Kingsley respectively. They share aspects of
character aside from their work with the bureau. Both are
susceptible to visions, both chew aspirins for chronic migraine
headaches. For his part Tom Mackelway has been demoted
from the Dallas office to the minor leagues in Albuquerque where
he is joined by Fran Kulok (Carrie-Anne Moss) with whom he had
a romantic relationship in the past. They appear to compete,
each trying to out-do the other, until the common enemy reunites
them with a promise of restoring what they had lost. The scene-
chewer of this movie, however, is Ben Kingsley in the role of
Benjamin O'Ryan, who is clearly a killer: we observe his stalking
of a mild-mannered fellow in a diner until the latter's untimely
demise at the hand of a strangler.
As in other formulaic thrillers, the killer taunts the FBI by
leaving clues here and there including a bevy of faxes of missing
persons--most of whom would presumably turn up dead at the
hands of the serial killer. The faxes are directed specifically to
Agent Mackelway. However when we in the audience notice a
large truck carrying ice cream and other refrigerated goods
cruising children's playgrounds, we might wonder whether
O'Ryan has an assistant who pursues the same gory agenda or
whether the two are essentially unrelated, working the murder
scene as independent contractors.
Michael Chapman has some dashing camera work of the New
Mexico landscape, particularly of the rocks that tourists the world
over head to that area to photograph and to barrel along the
highway at supernatural speeds. Kingsley is the actor to watch.
Eckhart does OK but is better served by roles in independent
features by film-makers like Neil LaBute, since "Suspect Zero" is
a pot pourri of random scenes designed to confound, rather than
intrigue, the audience.
Copyright © 2004 Harvey Karten
|
out of 4
