Review of The Bone Collector (1999) by Victor T — 23 Aug 2014

The 90´s were a fantastic decade for cinema with films like "Pulp Fiction", "Reservoir Dogs", "Toy Story", " American Beauty", "Being John Malkovich ", "The Matrix", "The Silence of the Lambs", "Seven" , etc. Those last two films had such an impact in the thriller genre that Hollywood tried numerous times to replicate their success and "The Bone Collector" is one of those attempts.

In 1997, New York City has a new serial killer who extracts a piece of a bone from the victims and leaves clues that leads to the next victim and his/her identity. This serial killer is investigated by a quadriplegic and ex forensic expert Lincoln Rhyme, Lincoln recruits a Police Officer Amelia Donaghy who discovered the body of a victim on a train tracks. Together they will try to solve the clues left by the serial killer.

Being a thriller, I expected that "The Bone Collector" would count with an exciting and bone chilling story but instead counts with one of the most boring and forgettable stories I ever seen, it had my interest for like 30 minutes but that's as far as it went. Director Philip Noyce tries too hard, and fails, to duplicate Jonathans Demme´s work in "The Silence of the Lambs" with the dark atmosphere and brutal murders of "Seven", he also seem tried to have some physiological aspects but there simply not there. Another flaw is that it wasted its good cast in dull characters: Denzel Washington is lying on a bed the entire film thus limiting his acting abilities, Michael Rooker is just walking into the scenes without any weight and Angelina Jolie gives an adequate performance as a Clarice Starling wanna be.

"The Bone Collector" aimed to be as good as "Seven" but failed by the lack of interesting characters, memorable scenes, entertainment and a good story. While it counts with adequate performances by Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, they could save this forgettable film.