Taking Lives

Taking Lives Needs A little More Life

-Ma. Rowena Alera

When strong and feisty Angelina Jolie sheds off her virtual game image for a chilling, smart-alecky role of a top FBI crime detective, high hopes are set. But this is the kind that you'd want to take just a step higher.

Unusual thriller

Taking Lives ventures into a new, unconventional killing process. While it is usual for thrillers with killers that create a diabolical pattern of murder to allow their watchers to follow their minds, Taking Lives creates a totally unique characterization. More than the suspicion-building pattern, Taking Lives tells of a lonely, sad, once-deprived man who does "life-jacking". As the title suggests, the killer assumes the lives of his victims so flawlessly that it covers up for the murders.

The story begins 20 years ago when a boy kills a road companion. He buries the body and takes on the life of his victim. After he has grown up, police unearth his last victim. The inspector requests the participation of top FBI profiler Ileana Scott, his protégé', to work on the case. Scott finds the case too revealing as she finds herself entangled between the crime witness Costa and the testimonies of the killer's mother Mrs. Asher.

The unconventionality of the plot is definitely thrilling. Like an intelligible Hannibal Lecter who never fails to play mind games with his chasers, the killer effectively covers up for his crime as he assumes their lives and allows them to live on. His first crime is committed in 1983 while he is a renegade teen. 20 years after, he starts killing men after the cops dig up his victims' bodies, all executed by gagging and neck-slashing with a piece of wire.

The character of the detective is new. As compared to other typical thriller films, this is something to look forward to. Agent Ileana Scott (Angelina Jolie) is an FBI agent sent to Montreal by request of her old mentor due to her uncommon way of solving crime. The uniqueness of her character is seen even at the beginning, when she feels the pain, or torment of the victims by lying on their open graves. She takes photographs of these dead bodies to her home, mounts them on top of her bed, and keeps them beside her while eating dinner. Her utter disregard for traditional crime-solving makes her an object of disdain as well to two other Montreal detectives.

The close, extremely tight shots are effective tension-builders. The production design supports the intention of spreading suspicion.

Jolie definitely plays a lot better and smarter role than her character in Bone Collector. Her attention to intricate details makes her both unbeatable and threatening to Montreal Police. Unlike that previous role, Illeana Scott exhibits a stronger, more dominating appeal as her own boss.

Other assets of the film cannot be ignored. The premise may not be a breakthrough, but the plot offers to thriller lovers a new kind of psycho, a sentimental kind whose victims match his age. But inasmuch as the film spells success in heightening chilling emotions, Director D.J. Caruso needs to do brushing up in making Taking Lives foolproof. Following the sequence of its narratives, it still leaves too many plot holes that are visible to any naked studying eye.

Unanswered

The narrative leaves a more-than-usual number of plot holes that either lacks emphasis, or is completely overlooked.

The film was set in Montreal, Canada. There are scenes of Chateau Frontenac in Quebec that are scored with a song about "Montreal". Although the two cities are adjacent, it creates confusion to watchers who are familiar to the cities.

It is also very unlikely to "borrow" investigators from a neighboring country. Is the Montreal Police undermanned? I don't see the need to hire an FBI inspector for a Canadian case, unless it involves political or territorial concerns.

The development of the killer's character is another angle that leaves questions hanging. Here is a psycho murderer who is so good that he leaves all his killings in cold file. He was a lonely teenager who perfects the art of assuming the lives of his victims, keeping him unnoticed to the cops. Why in the world will he start taunting the police after around 20 years of being perfectly unnoticed? As opposed to the film's established-fact that psycho killers derive pleasure out of witnessing victims suffer, why then will a psycho killer put an end to the very thing that gives him pleasure?

The killer turned adult in the character of an artist Costa (Ethan Hawke) pays a man named Hart (Keifer Sutherland) to do the artworks he presents as his own. Nearing the end of the story, Costa sees the need to get rid of Hart (in the passenger seat) so he speeds through a main road and targets Hart's body while he, the driver, remains unharmed except for few cuts that only need a few stitches.

The scene is logistically improbable. How could Costa be so sure that Hart, on the passenger's seat, would die and that he wouldn't get hurt? While Scott was inspecting Mrs. Asher's hidden tunnel, a man suspected to be the killer attacks her from behind. A top FBI profiler will recognize small details, no matter how quick the encounter was. How come Scott didn't?

Professionally dedicated Scott seems to loose her touch as she engages in an affair with Acosta, and finally taking the crime personally as she finishes the killer off with her own hand, an ending too weak for a film with a strong beginning.

Taking Lives is a twisted journey for the lonely killer whose young life is torn by rejection, but the twists it takes may not be that pleasing for skillful eyes.