Review of Untraceable (2008) by Charles R — 11 Aug 2010

Another one of those countless thrillers that fail to thrill by failing to deliver on an interesting concept. What should have been a superb cinematographic comment on a moral theme is instead a very long detective series episode. Filmmaker Gregory Hoblit fails to see the value of the filmâ??s basic idea and ruins it with an average story and an average screenplay.

The brilliance of the idea is the remote, voyeuristic value of the theme. But Hoblit is determined to undermine this by a bizarre urge to take us into the killerâ??s sanctum. He shows us meaningless scenes of victims captured, traps set up, leaving nothing to the imagination. Every possible opportunity for intellectual input is snatched from the viewer as Hoblit ceaselessly spoon feeds.

And so, disappointingly, everything about the experience is mediocre and intellectually insulting. Traceable should be revisited with much more ingenuity.