Untraceable
(2008)
Sony
Cast:
Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks, Mary Beth Hurt.
Rating:
R.
Run
time: 101 mins
Genre:
Crime.
Verdict:
Beautiful
(see rating
system)
Here's
a compact and efficient thriller for fans of movies like The
Net and Silence of the Lambs.
The
marriage of the two genres - horror and high tech - results
in a fast moving, tense story about a serial killer who murders
his vicitms live on the Internet. There's a twist - the more
people that log on, the faster the victim dies.
Diane
Lane is Jennifer Marsh, the cyber crime FBI specialist leading
the investigation and closely assisted by agent Griffin Dowd
(Colin Hanks) and a streetwise detective, Eric Box (Billy
Burke). They quickly realize they're dealing with a real computer
geek who knows how to assume other people's identities and
cover his tracks - hence the "Untraceable" of the
title.
While
the killings at first seem random, when the police are themselves
targeted it becomes apparent there is a method to the killer's
evil madness - what they used to call "motive" in
Perry Mason's day.
OK,
it doesn't have the stature of a classic like Silence of the
Lambs, but this movie does manage to pitch the story as frighteningly
believable in an age in which terrorists post footage of kidnap
victims being killed. And the ease with which the killer manages
to lure people into vulnerable situations is also plausible.
The
acting is solid and while most of the computer babblespeak
went right over my head, I'm sure the younger crowd will get
all the tech references.
The
movie looks and sounds great and there are four behind-the-scenes
featurettes included.
