WATCHER, THE (director: Joe Charbanic; screenwriters: Clay Ayers/David Elliot/based on a story by Darcy Meyers and David Elliot; cinematographer: Michael Chapman; editor: Richard Nord; cast: James Spader (Campbell), Marisa Tomei (Polly), Keanu Reeves (Griffin), Ernie Hudson (FBI Director, Ibby), Chris Ellis (Hollis), Rebakah Louise Smith (Ellie),Yvonne Niami (Lisa), Robert Cicchini (Mitch) Jennifer McShane (Diana), Gina Alexander (Sharon); Runtime: 93; 2000)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A routine serial killer flick, set in Chicago. Everything seen is what has become a cliché for this genre. There is the sensitive lawman who is traumatized by the killings and his inability to get the killer, and the cat and mouse games that ensue between FBI Agent Joel Campbell (Spader) and the elusive killer, who has the obligatory three names all serial killers seem to have, David Allen Griffin (Reeves). He follows the agent from L.A. to Chicago, where he phones to tell him, it hasn't been the same since you left. I missed you. There is the psychic connection between the killer and the investigating agent, which is depicted here like yin and yang, with each needing the other to exist, and there is the ego maniacal taunting of the killer, coming in the form of sending photos of the next intended victim to Campbell, as he gives the police a day before killing them. The film ends smoothly like those mystery shows on TV do: with a car chase that seems to be obligatory filler for such cop films, a rescue coming just in the nick of time, and the action scenes being well choreographed to fit the pyrotechnical finale. The attempt to bring any psychology into this thriller, never materializes, except in the most banal manner. An inexperienced therapist, played with restraint by Marisa Tomei, doles out inane cheerleading analysis to the burnt-out cop, who has become her patient, concerned that the killer is using him as his excuse to kill. In fact, the killer is more interested in playing mind games with Spader than he is in killing his victims, which convinced me that this film wasn't looking to go into new territory with this 'let's make a profit for the producers' genre film.
This debut feature by the music video director Joe Charbanic is a limited venture, smacking of formula questions and answers to the serial killer's mental state, resulting in a picture that is decidedly painted by-the-numbers.
The film opens under the dark skies of Chicago, where the noise heard is from police sirens and helicopters from above the skyline of Lake Michigan, swooping down on the crime scene. The murder of a young woman takes place in the building where Joel Campbell lives, and he is drawn into the case when he makes contact with the hard-boiled investigating detective who is at the crime scene, Hollis (Ellis). Currently, the agent is on a disability leave, seeing a therapist about his inability to function anymore, taking heavy doses of sleeping pills, self-injecting himself in the stomach with drugs for his migraines, and having nightmares in his unkept apartment about being unable to catch sicko David Allen Griffin during an L.A. foot chase; and, from failing to save the killer's last target in L.A. -- Campbell's married lover -- from a death by fire. The agent gets back on the case when the sicko, seen always dressed in black, sends him by Federal Express a photo of his next victim. The killer's modus operandi is to watch the victim while undetected, get their routine down pat, and then sneak into their apartment, gag them and tie them up, dance with them, touch them without having sex and then strangle them with a piano wire. He makes for an uninteresting sicko, reading his banal lines with an undue need for perfect enunciation, as if he were trying out for an amateur Shakespeare production in some small Midwestern town. Rumor has it, that Reeves expected this role to only be a cameo and when the role was expanded and his pay wasn't, he became unhappy with the studio, as a result refusing to do any publicity work for them on the film.
James Spader as the lead, most of his career a fine actor, has difficulty doing anything with his uninteresting and predictable role, except go with the props he's been handed. He needs reassurance from his shrink that he can catch the killer, but gets further frustrated that he is unsuccessful in saving the lives of two nondescript women, who can't be warned in time of the danger they are in, despite their pictures plastered all over the windy city and on the TV news.
The film covers up its banal story by some pretty slick shooting devices, which include fast-paced editing and jump-cuts, and at times, when taking on the killer's point of view, making the beautiful color go grainy with a hand-held video camera, which is meant to signify that there is some kind of mystery going on. What the sleek looking film accomplishes, is that it makes this hollow film very watchable, looking much like an MTV video.
The film ultimately fails because the story is never drawn out enough to make it spellbinding or tense, the main characters are both too hackneyed to bring something to the table except an exercise in playing a role that goes against their film career typecasting. After about 80 minutes into the film, it breaks completely down in silliness and incredibility, as the killer and the cop - yin and yang - meet face-to-face for the first time in the cemetery where Spader's girlfriend is buried and continue their cat-and-mouse relationship, this time over the pretty therapist, who is held hostage in the same way his former girlfriend was, which makes for a dicey ending to a dicey pic.
REVIEWED ON 9/15/2000 GRADE: C
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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