Taking Lives -- 2004 -- R

Ah, a decent psychologically thriller. Nice to find one of these occasionally that doesn’t completely disappoint. Granted, it wasn’t perfect in all aspects, but it was engaging, and kept me entertained through its run time.

The gist of this one is there is a guy who finds victims similar to him in appearance, kills them, and assumes their identities in every way possible. A Canadian precint calls in an FBI profiler to see if she can help discover the secret behind a series of bodies they’ve discovered with similar mutilation (bashed in face, missing hands, destroyed dental palette -- you know, the identifiable stuff), and she works out these murders and a series of previously unsolved ones can be attributed to this killer, so finding him will be difficult since he could literally be anyone.

The positives are a plot that is intriguing enough to keep me engaged. I honestly wanted to see how it would play out, and remained interested in it throughout, despite the fact that the "big twist" of who the bad guy is was kind of easy to figure out. Just basic plot knowledge pointed him out very, very early on and no amount of doppelgangers dissuaded me from believing this. Even knowing this, though, did not damage my enjoyment, since I just wanted to see how he would try and keep himself concealed. Plotwise on his trying to throw the cops off, he did a good job. Beheading this mom in the elevator, though, was kinda dumb.

I will have to had it to them on the ending, though... They did have me going. I was about the give the movie a great big "This Sucks!" until the final reveal, so kudos there.

Character-wise, it was decent. Obviously, the killer’s backstory couldn’t be revealed while he was playing someone else. The FBI chick’s "reasoning" for "what compels her" was a bit on the shoddy side, since it only made for a disturbing tale, and didn’t really explain anything as to why such an event would compel her to do what she does. No one else gets enough screen time for us to care, so when one of the cops was killed, it didn’t mean much; I really didn’t even know which of the Tweedledee-Tweedledum combo he was.

On a more personal note, I suspect this screenwriter may have looked at a script I wrote some time ago. Sure, it’s presumptuous on my part, but it was about a guy who used a ritual to move the soul of his loved one into different bodies and as he did, the prior host was killed. A female agent with a specialty in cult religions came in from out of town to help. Same local Tweedledee-Tweedledum combo of locals. Same basic backstory of the main killer (sorry, that’s a bit of a spoiler). Same relationship developed between the out of town lady cop and the killer. Killer just as transparent in that one too, actually. Oh well.

Anyway, it plays out like an average psychological thriller that delivers a nice mix of action and intrigue, while not always holding its secrets. While I did enjoy watching, it isn’t a classic or the top of its game by any stretch. It’ll work well if you want a decent thriller, but if you’re only going for the best, it doesn’t quite measure up.