«Serial Killer Thriller»
"Untraceable," starring Diane Lane as Jennifer Marsh, head of the FBI Portland Cyber Crimes unit, uses as background gruesome, horrifically twisted crimes. This casts a dark cloud of foreboding over the proceedings.
A new website, KillWithMe.com, pops up with real images of a cat innocently lapping up milk from a saucer. The computer hacker has arranged that, the more people hit the website, the faster the cat will be killed through a contraption he's hooked up. Soon after, the stakes are raised when a human being appears on the website, his destiny linked to the number of curiosity seekers who tune in to watch. Teamed with local Portland police Detective Eric Box (Billy Burke), Jennifer races to close down the website and find the hacker/killer.
Despite all-out efforts on the part of the FBI and local police, the killer appears unstoppable. What's more, he seems to enjoy baffling the authorities while brazenly continuing his bizarre program of murder.
"Untraceable" is competently made and benefits from a solid, believable performance by Lane, a good supporting cast, and a series of disturbing set pieces depicting the assorted ways in which the killer lays the groundwork for his victims' demise. Because the deaths are keyed to hits by computer users, the victims are slowly tortured to death.
About halfway through the movie, however, the turf becomes all too familiar. As in countless thrillers before it, "Untraceable" switches gears into formula, making its resolution both predictable and disappointing.
Lane gives her character authority and intelligence. An early scene shows how effectively she does her job. When she is thoroughly perplexed and rendered helpless in the wake of this new, horrrifying crime, we see her frustration and determination to shut down the website and nail the perpetrator. So it's a game of wits, really, between Jennifer and the killer, whose identity is not revealed until halfway through the movie. Both are bright, both have the ability to checkmate the other's moves, and both are motivated to prevail.
Colin Hanks (Tom's son) plays Jennifer's cyber crimes partner, Griffin Dowd, whose job always seems to interfere with his attempts to meet interesting, eligible women. This is sort of a running gag in a film that is otherwise deadly serious in tone. Burke's Detective Box is the typical movie cop -- strong, resourceful, efficient, resolved, yet impotent because he's up against something he's never encountered before.
Compared to such recent movies as the "Saw" and "Hostel" franchises, "Untraceable" is fairly tame. It uses its grisly images as integral plot points, not as the centerpiece and raison d'etre. The images are disturbing, but without them, the movie would be just another TV flick. Screen violence is not always reprehensible. If handled with tact, it can underscore drama and add tremendous tension.
Rated R for strong images of violence and language, "Untraceable" is a well made thriller. Elevated by the presence of Diane Lane, it combines the procedural nature of "Zodiac," the cat-and-mouse interplay of "Silence of the Lambs," and the ghastly images of "Seven."
[Monday, November 17, 2008]
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