Review of Untraceable (2008) by Simon S — 04 Sep 2010

Sometimes the easiest way to describe a movie is to compare it to a similar movie. Watching "Untraceable" I could not help but notice that the makers tried to create something like the "Peeping Tom" of the internet generation. Voyeurism is the big theme in both movies.

The problem is, "Untraceable" is just not as good as "Peeping Tom". By far not as good.

The whole plot is pretty predictable. You can tell, that Owen will first kill one of Jennifer's friends (and that is easy to guess, as she obvious has not many) and then get her and then she will escape his killing machine in the last moment and then she will fight him and then the law has, once again, proved its supremacy over all those little fiends crawling about the internet and then... oh, wait, then the movie ends. But not before showing the posts on the website revealing the terrible sensationalism, bloodlust and sexism of the internet community.

Another problem is that the killer is revealed after about half an hour into the movie. In some movies you know the killer from the very beginning and it is still exciting to see how he is tracked down. "Untraceable" is not one of those. Owens motivation is revealed another half an hour later. And - again - too early, I think. The plot is far too conventional to provide tension for the last half hour from this point on.

In this flagging plot the cast struggles to do its best. Diane Lane does a good job and her play is maybe the best thing in the whole movie. The other actors are not bad, but also not really good. Camera and makeup leave no room for greater complaints. Solid work on the backside of the camera.

What is most troublesome about "Untraceable" is its message towards the torture porn genre. It is one thing to criticise this genre. But the way "Untraceable" shows the killings is clearly located INSIDE of the very genre it tries to criticise. There is nothing that says: this is bad, this is disgusting. Or something. The explicit showing of the victim's deaths without commenting on it in the movie takes every possibility for the film to stand out of this genre away. It just does the same things it tries to criticise without showing how dread it is. This way it is difficult to even recognise the movie's position towards torture porn. Only during the showdown when Jennifer is fighting with Owen you can clearly see the message "Untraceable" tries to provide, when the people in the FBI conference-room behave like watching wrestling.

Concluding I have to say that "Untraceable" is just not a good movie. It is okay. While I think that the already mentioned "Peeping Tom of the internet generation" is a great premise for a movie, "Untraceable" misses just too many of the possibilities this idea provides.