Taking Lives Details

Director DJ Caruso stumbles his way through the conventions of the psychological thriller in this dreary follow-up to his hyperactive The Salton Sea. A by-the-numbers serial-killer film that's so well signposted you can see the plot twists a mile off, it's neither remotely believable nor suspenseful. Instead a strong cast is underused in a vehicle for Angelina Jolie's photogenic features. She plays a top FBI profiler, called in to help Canadian homicide detectives Jean-Hugues Anglade and Olivier Martinez catch a chameleon-like murderer who assumes his victims' identities. It's hard to take Jolie's role seriously, especially when this so-called consummate professional goes gaga almost immediately over key witness Ethan Hawke. For his part, Hawke looks vaguely uncomfortable throughout, while the appearance of Kiefer Sutherland as the potential “life-jacker” is lazy typecasting. Though the picture's effects are suitably grisly and it does boast one genuinely jumpy moment, the slack pacing and scant drama means there's nothing really to take the breath away — except perhaps the monumental stupidity of the final few frames.

Another run-of-the-mill murder mystery that offers nothing new, other than Angelina Jolie as the sort of profiler who lies down in graves in search of inspiration; the movie's makers should have followed her example.