Taking Lives Movie Review

Taking Lives (2004)

Rent Taking Lives on Amazon Video
Written by: Michael Pye (novel), Jon Bokenkamp (screen story), Jon Bokenkamp (screenplay)
Directed by: D.J. Caruso
Starring:  Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland, Paul Dano
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
An FBI profiler is called in by French Canadian police to catch a serial killer who takes on the identity of each new victim.

Verdict
It's an uninspiring thriller that's painfully predictable. I was able to guess the ending twist very early. The unconvincing plot alternatives will only bolster your prediction. When the twist is revealed the movie has a montage of all the very obvious clues as if we couldn't have guessed what would happen. The best part of this movie is the last scene just because of how crazy it gets. Other than that, forgettable.
It depends.

Review
This is a pretty standard murder thriller, and you'll realize that after the first few scenes. It starts with a flashback of a murderous teen before we jump to Angelina Jolie's super agent. She's hotshot FBI agent that lies in graves for a new perspective. It's more than a little awkward and forced.

From the jump I wondered if I had already guessed the twist. It seems too obvious, but the misdirection isn't effective. It's easy to see where this is going both in the short and long term and that robs the movie of most of the suspense.

I was surprised that Jolie's character broke into a suspects house. Does that not violate a law? That leads us to a big jump scare that makes almost no sense whatsoever, but it's an effective, if cheap, jump scare because of that.

Jolie's character starts a romance with a witness, Ethan Hawke's character. He has no problem with how creepy she is and the movie throws out a very easy ploy in an attempt to make us think we don't know how this will end.

It's a forgettable movie that assumes we've forgotten most of what's happened in the last hour and does a quick montage of all the very obvious clues. It's insulting.

The last scene is actually good. Both Hawke and Jolie get to act and we get a plot twist that isn't as easily predicted. If you begin to question the logic of that twist, it may leave you scratching your head though.