Taking Lives (18) Review

Overall Rating

Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke are very good in this movie. This film has suspense, intrigue, and a "dark" feeling about it.

The Canadian cops in the film are made to look like idiots, I'm not sure that is very accurate. Keifer Sutherland is only is in the film for 5 minutes.

Taking Lives is a dark, disturbing movie. Reminds me of the film, "Seven", a little. Some of the visuals are truly macabre. It stars Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, and Kiefer Sutherland. Fans of the tv show "24", don't get too excited, Kiefer is in this film less than 5 minutes.

The beginning scene is quite a powerful start to the movie. Two men decide to buy a car and continue on their journey after the bus they were riding in breaks down. When the car blows a tire, there is an awful accident/murder while they try to fix the flat. The film then fast forwards a number of years to a current crime scene.

While a construction crew is digging with a steam shovel, they actually dig up a body. The site is Montreal, Canada. The local chief calls upon a female FBI agent for help, (Jolie). Angelina has an exotic beauty to her, that is for sure. She has come a long way in her acting ability since she started in the movie "Hackers". Her looks aren't a distraction from her lack of talent, but an addition to her skilled craft. The two detectives on the case are all upset that their captain has called for outside assistance on the case. This does not make Angelina's job any easier.

She has some strange methods in her role as a profiler. She actually laid down in the dead man's grave to get some sort of "vibe" from it. She takes all of the murder photos and pastes them all around her hotel room. There is one very weird scene where she is eating dinner in her hotel room, and instead of a person sitting across from her - she has the opposing chair full of crime scene pictures.

Ethan Hawke is a witness to one of the murders, who chased the villain away, and tried to save the victim. The victim was already too far gone, and his attempts at CPR were to no avail. This is Hawke's best acting since the film, "Gattica". He is a local art dealer that has a big show coming up. If the show doesn't do well, he will have to declare bankruptcy. There seem to be some romantic sparks between Jolie and Hawke as they go through the investigation.

Meanwhile, in a different Candadian precinct, the killer's mother comes forward to say that she has seen him recently. She says it is very strange for her to have seen him at all, since he had died in a car crash 15 years earlier. She was sure that it was him, however.

As Jolie investigates further, she realizes that the killer had an identical twin brother. This brother died in his teens while out on a local lake with his twin. The mother favored the dead teen, and the surviving twin started down a bad path soon after his brother's passing. Jolie is slowly starting to gain the respect of the two Canadian detectives that she is working with, as she seems to be much better at policework than they are.

Enter into the picture, the character played by Kiefer Sutherland. He matches the description of the killer, given by Hawke. By this time, Jolie figures out that the killer has been "taking lives". He studies a person, who is usually a loner who won't be missed, and then kills him - and lives his life for a while - until he finds another victim. This is a definite thriller of a movie, that can have you gripping your seat at certain times.

Just when you think the movie is over, there is an interesting plot twist. I sort of guessed how it would end, but it is done very well. Jolie and Hawke carry the workload of this film on their backs, and they do it well. I give this film an 8.5/10.