Suspect Zero

Aaron Eckhart is terrible as agent Thomas Mackelway on the hunt for a serial killer and Carrie-Anne Moss as another agent is wasted in this uneven film. The premise of the film is interesting but I can't reveal it because it would be considered a spoiler. Poor Ben Kingsley is relegated to acting with his "intense eyes" look for most of the film. Something is really lacking in this film because the idea is good but the execution is not. The direction is okay but there's not much suspense. The ending is very weak. Most of the film is confusing and there are large holes in the plot. Even the locale of New Mexico is wasted. I lived there an a lot more could have been done with it. Weakest of all are the characters who are distant and quite impersonal. I didn't hate the film but was disappointed that it wasn't done better. Blame the writer mostly for weak characterizations.

I don't like the way that this film is shot or edited. There is a lot of focus on paper and drawing and writing and newspapers, and it feels like a film school project. I do not like the video effect when they go into memory or psychic vision. It looks like a seventies blurred screen. The story is okay and the actors are doing the best they can with the material. It's not a terrible movie, but it is a terrible-looking movie.

As I followed this film from beginning to end, I enjoyed the revelations of the various twists and I felt that the film even seemed to have a natural and proper progression to it, but at the same time, I felt that there was something very large missing. I think that the director ended up inserting the punchlines with too much subtlety, and the acting was too routine, while the action was too constant to be shocking or surprising... Whatever it may be, the film was lacking something large. The combination of all of the above seems to kill the feeling and plot of the film.

I couldn't help but feel utterly indifferent in some parts of the film which are supposed to be exciting and thrilling, and this caused the film to let me down. I am not sure who is to blame, but in the end, this interesting plot with a lot of potential turned into 'just another movie.'

SUSPECT ZERO (2004) ** Ben Kingsley, Aaron Eckhart, Carrie-Anne Moss, Harry J. Lennix, Kevin Chamberlin, Chloe Russell, Nicole DeHuff, William Mapother. (Dir: E. Elias Merhige)

'Se7en' – 'Silence of the Lambs' = 'Zero'

Trying to make a serial killer film, a sub genre that appears to have overtaken the unstoppable killing machine teen slasher (think Jason or Freddy) that took horror films to another level, must be like attempting to build a snowman in July: not much fun and pointless since it's damn near impossible to perfect an impossibility.

Take the case of this unique perspective to a 15 minutes-of-fame and ticking category : a serial killer killing serial killers! OK now try to convince me for nearly two hours of my time why I should care? Well it was a good idea.

Anyway the premise of the latest style over substance take on it is having a disgraced FBI profiler named Mackelway (Eckhart) being reassigned to the desert of New Mexico when he finds the dullness only adding to his current state of blinding migraines (he chomps on aspirin like Chiclets) until a ghastly murder is found at the border – literally – with some follow up faxes sent directly to him. It seems a former specialty agent, O'Ryan (Sir Ben acting up a storm), who was assigned to a shadowy sect project entitled Icarus (read: getting too close to the sun; burning – foreshadowing of things to come) where highly intelligent applicants were able to 'see' the minds of serial killers at work and transcribing their thoughts into para psychological scribblings in charcoal pencil that would lead them to their quarry. Apparently it has affected O'Ryan to the point of obsession and causing him to act as a rogue executioner of the filth he was assigned to locate. What happens next is a series of murders of murderers that lead a grisly wake to some serious soul searching for one Agent Mackelway. To complicate matters his former partner – and ex-lover – Agent Kulok (Moss) has been called in to help him and his new prickly boss Charelton (Lennix also late of the 'Matrix' flicks) crack the case wide open.

I admit it seems a tad outrageous that someone could psychically forecast an upcoming crime however it is set in fiction and there was a cool 'X-Files' episode 'Unruhe' that had a similar story but it involved Polaroids instead of sketchings. Regardless you have to give the creative team an A for effort yet the screenplay by Zak Penn and Billy Ray is a Luke-warm reheating of 'Se7en' with Kingsley as an ersatz John Doe serving up justice with a nasty slicing off of the victims' eyelids to show what he sees they see and the 'Silence of the Lambs' backbiting of its federal peacekeepers at odds with what they cannot.

Eckhart seems wasted of his talent in a somewhat muted turn – he should be more tortured if that is what his character is implied to be and Moss is undeniably sleepwalking her way through the film no thanks to bad lighting making one of the screen's most lovely women look downright homely. Kingsley has proven to be a very versatile actor notably ditching his Gandhi peace for sinister doings in 'Sexy Beast' a few years ago and here he makes the most of his deeply troubled psychic warrior with a few moments of glass sharp scares.

Director Merhige a relative newcomer employs the usual shaky camera work with some interesting visual courtesy of his ace cinematographer Michael Chapman with its desaturated colors and vibrantly dark moments that underlie the terror at hand. Too bad it couldn't shed it in a more intriguing light.

I liked it. The filming is really good and the twists, while not really enigmatic, are good enough to grasp your attention. Eckhart gives a good performance here, and he's really believable as the FBI officer in search for the truth. Kingsley on the contrary seems not at his usual standard, but this is also a consequence of the weirdness of his character. The start is really good, from the cinematic point of view too: you'll think it's a classic horror movie (which is not the case). The ending is not at par with the first 4/5 of the movie but at that point you'll be willing to forgive the director because the rest of the movie is OK.