Review of Taking Lives (2004) by Lee V — 16 Aug 2009

The genuine idea behind the story was really good I think, somewhere along the way things got worse though.

We follow a case of a serial killer who takes the identities of his victims... For the most part, the movie takes place in Montreal where the local Police ask for the help of special agent Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie). There's a breakthrough, for the first time a witness of the murder has emerged, an art dealer and painter James Costa (Ethan Hawke).

The acting, well, it's good, really good, maybe even too good. Why too good? Because it exposes the weaknesess of the movie even more, especially the sometimes simplistic and cheesy dialogue. Also there's like this battle between Hawke and Jolie as to who takes the movie over. The characters are sometimes overly suggestive. The character played by Olivier Martinez is horribly annoying.

The story is pretty good, I think that maybe the reason people could consider it too predictive is because of the poor dialogues and the way the characters develop. With such a cast and a better script the movie could have been much better. The opening to the movie is very good and climatic (Justin Chatwin's small part), the ending being still pretty satisfying. Between those two I have mixed feelings.

Overall "Taking Lives" is a decent movie, quite impressive visually with good acting and a nice atmosphere but it could have been much better... I have to say I enjoyed it mostly because of Ethan Hawke's performance and Jolie's charm.