Movie: Taking Lives (2004)

Hoo-boy, does David Fincher have a lot to answer for. The credit sequence, the mood, and some of the plot mechanics for this movie were lifted wholesale from his movie SE7EN. It exists so completely in Fincher’s shadow that it should have been called EIGHT. (Or would that be EI8HT?) From what I understand, the movie has absolutely nothing to do with the Michael Pye novel it’s based on other than the serial-killer-as-hermit-crab business. Angelina Jolie plays the American special agent brought in to show the Montreal police the mistakes they haven’t thought of themselves. Kiefer Sutherland apparently knocked out all of his scenes in a long afternoon. The ending is so ludicrous that I’m tempted to recommend the movie on that basis alone. Nice to see Canadian locations playing themselves, though. And Ethan Hawke gives a strong performance. It must kill him that he’s better in big studio films like this and TRAINING DAY than he is in those shaky-cam indies that seem so dear to his heart.