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Taking Lives Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: R (for strong violence including disturbing images, language and some sexuality) Theater release: March 19, 2004 by Warner Brothers Directed by: D.J. Caruso Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes Cast: Angelina Jolie (Illeana Scott), Ethan Hawke (Costa), Kiefer Sutherland (Hart), Gena Rowlands (Mrs. Asher), Olivier Martinez (Paquette) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

All the style in the world can't save a stupid script, though Taking Lives director D.J. Caruso sure gives it his best shot. The film certainly starts with an interesting premise, even if it feels like the sort of thing that only happens in gimmicky cop movies with punny titles: The story concerns a serial killer who has spent nearly two decades not only bumping off his victims, but assuming their identities, too—using their credit cards, paying their taxes, even pursuing their dreams. But Caruso shows little interest in developing this idea; instead of following the killer, he follows the cops, and along the way he takes a film that started with intrigue and turns it into a fairly routine thriller that eventually spirals into silliness.

Angelina Jolie as Illeana

Angelina Jolie stars as Illeana Scott, a bright FBI profiler who has come to Montreal to help the local police solve a murder. Obsessed with her work, she tacks crime-scene photos above her hotel bed and to the chair opposite hers at the dinner table, and she has a fine eye for detail. At several points, the film cuts between intense close-ups of her eyes and the details they scan, from the facial features of the people she interviews to the objects they handle while she talks to them. Illeana also knows just what tricks to play in the interrogation room to determine whether or not someone should be a suspect.

One witness who crosses her path is Costa (Ethan Hawke), an artist who not only may have seen the killer, but can draw the suspect's face—no need for a police sketch here! And since Illeana is played by a sexy Hollywood actress, her professonalism is inevitably thrown to the winds, as she strikes up a rapport with Costa that segues quickly from friendship to something more, despite the fact that he is still very much tied to the case—if not as a suspect, then at least as bait, once the cops try to set a trap for the killer.

Ethan Hawke as Costa

In true thriller fashion, Taking Lives hints that Illeana's seemingly innocent new friend just might be the killer himself—his many questions about her life do seem suspiciously compatible with the killer's modus operandi—but the film also tosses us other possibilities, such as a certain man (Kiefer Sutherland) who seems to be stalking Costa for reasons unknown. Or the killer could be someone else entirely that we have not yet seen.

Caruso—a veteran of cop shows like The Shield and Robbery Homicide Division, whose only other feature film was The Salton Sea, an interesting if flawed story about drug addicts, psychotic dealers and undercover narcotics cops—seems pretty comfortable with the trappings of this genre, and he milks the mystery for all it's worth.

The film's prologue, which takes place in 1983 and shows the teenaged killer making one of his first kills, is suitably jarring and just a little creepy. And for the first hour or so, you may be inclined to forgive Taking Lives for clichés like the fact that the cops always walk around with flashlights instead of turning the lights on—the dingy beams of light look so cool and stylish, it would be churlish to complain. There is also a great "Gotcha!" moment guaranteed to get the audience jumping in their seats—though the minute you start to think about it, it begins to make less and less sense.

Canadians may be inclined to cut the film some slack, since it isn't all that often that Canada, which has been home to many American "runaway productions," gets to play itself. Even the change in currency over the past two decades is depicted correctly!

Olivier Martinez as Paquette

But I'm a Canadian, and I simply can't cut the film that much slack. One can only forgive so much, and eventually, the script, written by Jon Bokenkamp from a novel by Michael Pye, runs off in some pretty indefensible directions. For one thing, the sexualization of Illeana's friendship with Costa (and the exploitation of Jolie's nudity) is pretty gratuitous, especially after we have seen her put up with the sexist humour of her male colleagues (La Femme Nikita's Tchéky Karyo and Unfaithful's Olivier Martinez).

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