Keanu Reeves and Marisa Tomei star in The Watcher, a psychological thriller. This movie reminds me of an Alfred Hichcock film in the high level of suspense created.
Reeves plays David Allen Griffin, a creepy serial killer, and has left a trail of dead women for the police to figure out. One former FBI agent, Joel Campbell, ably played by James Spader, worked the case before, but has retired on disability and now wants nothing to do with this. In case you haven't guessed it yet, he gets off the bench and back into the game of life to catch this killing machine.
While the killer leaves no clues which leaves the police without any trail, he decides to make this more interesting. He does this by sending a picture of his victim to the police before he kills them a day later.
In one way, The Watcher reminds me of any number of serial killer / psychological thriller films. However, the FBI agent functions as a kind of modern day Sherlock Holmes. The police may be inept, but he pieces together what others miss, and methodically hones in on the killer.
For those that enjoy a good thriller, than you'll find The Watcher quite satisfying. If you get creeped out easily, than this is not for you. As an aside, this film does feature a lot of great views of Chicago.
Overall Grade: B
3 comments:
Thanks for the lovely review on the Watcher which is one of my favorite movies. However I wish you had given more credit to James Spader's acting chops as he is very underated and really did hold this film together. He's a very talented actor with many bad choices in films. Too bad.
I agree that Spader was quite strong in the film. I was wondering why I hadn't seen someone with his abilities in more films. Thanks for pointing that out.
I think he is seen as an almost brat packer (ei Pretty in Pink) . . . I always like "Jack's back" and Secretary from Good ole Spader.
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