Abob Teff

I suppose that I fell into the trap myself. I expected to pick up a decent serial killer thriller that would exercise my brain. Instead I ended up with some pretty scenery that exercised my patience. OK, so maybe it wasn't that bad, but I draw the line when I begin wondering "When is this going to end?"

The story follows a homicide detective (Sandra Bullock) with a shadowy past trying to solve the "perfect murder" (not a series of serial killings as the publicity suggests) that is perpetuated by a couple of gifted high school students with too much time on their hands, not enough parental involvement, and a library card to access criminology text books. Don't worry, I'm not giving away spoilers, this is all revealed in the opening of the movie (and the trailer) and there are really no surprises in this movie for me to reveal. The only real mystery is about Sandra Bullock's past, and even that isn't too hard to crack.

Technically the film seems kind of sloppy, especially early on. The plot, as simple as it is, is quite drawn out and a little jumpy. I was rather surprised to learn that this was written by Tony Gayton, who scripted such a marvelous film with "The Salton Sea." The acting is fair: Sandra, Ben Chapin, Ryan Gosling, and Michael Pitt do a decent enough job with the poor characters that they were given. The characters are not interesting enough to draw you in to the point where you really care about them. Bullock's character (who seems to get dumber as the movie progresses) is better suited for a Lifetime made for TV movie starring Nancy McKeon.

The only two characters that are half way interesting are the two young killers, and even they annoy you enough early on that you just want to spank the little punks and then send them to the electric chair (or gas chamber as Michael Pitt's character corrects in the movie). This film's premise has so much potential on so many levels, including focusing on the killers and commenting on the sad state that some of our brightest children are in in this country. But the script would rather dwell on meaningless relationships than focus on important issues.

I was severely disappointed in this movie and the DVD. The DVD's only special features are a commentary (director Barbet Schroeder and editor Lee Percy and the trailer (which gives away too much information. Sadly, the commentary continually references deleted scenes "that are included on this DVD," yet somebody lied to them. There are no deleted scenes.

** (2 Stars)