Taking Lives takes a turn for the worse

Taking Lives is a generic Hollywood murder mystery that shows a few flashes of brilliance. However, any hope of greatness or even rising above the ordinary that this film has is swiftly crushed by a ridiculous onslaught of unbelievable plot twists.

The film follows a disappointing trajectory – from a chilling and extremely promising beginning, the film sputters and takes a sharp nosedive in quality. The opening shows an awkward, painfully shy boy meeting and seeming to befriend a brash, hotheaded young teen. In a flash, the shy boy kicks the brash one in front of a truck on a deserted road. Shot artfully, in a grainy flashback style, the opening doesn't feel like a Hollywood release – and the killer's first cold-blooded murder definitely feels scary. Then Taking Lives flashes forward 20 or so years to Montreal, where the Canadian police are trying to track down the savage murderer of a John Doe.

Completely stymied, the cops call for help from the FBI – and are rewarded with the Bureau's top profiler, Ileana Scott (Angelina Jolie). A unique agent with a bizarre affinity for death, Scott's unerring intuition and detective work antagonize the territorial Canadians, especially Detective Pacquette (Olivier Ramirez). Their only lead is an art dealer named James Costa (Ethan Hawke) who claims that he saw the murderer in action. Scott quickly figures out that taking lives is exactly what the killer has been doing for the past 20 years – not just killing his victims, but assuming their identities and living their lives. However, the case spirals out of control as Scott is caught in a web of attraction that threatens to cloud her ability to solve the murders.

Taking Lives could have been a sincerely good movie, replete with style and suspense. Director D.J. Caruso captures many scenes beautifully, using unique shots and camera movements. Caruso makes outstanding use of color as well; his rain-washed version of Montreal sparkles with beautiful hues in some scenes. Also, there are several fantastic jump moments in the film, at least two of which cause the audience to scream and reach for the nearest hand for comfort.

Unfortunately, Taking Lives scores terrible marks on plot. For the first half of the movie, while the plot appears to be a straightforward cat-and-mouse suspense game, it has its problems but manages to be basically plausible. After a completely unbelievable twist that totally changes the plot of the movie and Scott from a strong-willed woman to a sniveling mess, the movie fragments and never pulls itself back together. Because of this, Taking Lives feels like two movies, with two sets of characters and two main conflicts, instead of one cohesive film.

The acting in this movie is also less than outstanding, and Kiefer Sutherland's part turns out to be a disappointment. Billed as one of the main characters, this talented actor barely makes a cameo in Taking Lives, and his only lines are incredibly annoying, serial-killer clichés. "Oh, but don't leave – we've been having so much fun with our games," he remarks. Clearly, the dialogue for this movie could have been whipped up by anyone with a basic knowledge of the English language who's seen a few slasher films.

Overall, Taking Lives is not a terrible movie, but it has more bad points than good. Even the wretchedly predictable ending and confusing twist are almost made up for by the high-quality beginning. However, this one is probably not worth spending 100 or so minutes of your life on.

Taking Lives is rated R for violence, language and brief nudity.