Taking Lives Full Movies

[Ptolomeo Shop]

Taking Lives" is another one of those serial killer thrillers where the madman is not content with murder but must also devise an ingenious and diabolical pattern so that it can be intuited by an investigator who visits the crime scene and picks up his vibes. The vibe jockey this time is FBI agent Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie), and the first time the other cops see her, she's on her back in the open grave of one of the victims, feeling the pain or sensing the hate or just possibly freaking out the cops so they won't take her for granted.

Although she's American, she's in Canada, where she has been summoned because she has special skills needed by the Montreal police. Before you find it odd that the Canadian cops lack a single law enforcement person with her expertise, reflect on this: They don't even know they're not in Montreal. At almost the very moment we hear "Montreal" on the soundtrack, there is a beautiful shot of the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City. This is a little like Chicago cops not noticing they are standing beneath Mount Rushmore.

But I quibble. "Taking Lives" is actually an effective thriller, on its modest but stylish level. Agent Scott quickly figures out that there's a pattern behind the killings -- each victim is a few years older than the previous one, and the killer steals his identity, so he must be a person so unhappy to be himself that he has to step into a series of other lives. A moment's reflection might have informed him that his victims, were they not dead, would be keeping up with him chronologically, but maybe, you know what, he's insane.

There's a big break in the case when an artist and gallery owner named Costa (Ethan Hawke) surprises the killer at work, and is able to supply a high-quality sketch of a suspect. Another development: Mrs. Asher (Gena Rowlands), mother of one of the supposed victims, says the dead body is not her son. Then, not long after, she sees her son quite alive on a ferry. "He's a dangerous man," she tells the cops. He was one of twins, but let's not go there.

The cops include Olivier Martinez and Tcheky Karyo, one of whom resents Scott, while the other respects her. Her methods include devising elaborate timelines of the victims and their photographs, but her greatest gift is to notice little clues. When she spots a draft beneath a bookcase, for example, Nancy Drew is the only other sleuth who would have guessed that behind the case is a hidden door to a secret room.

The movie gets a lot more complicated than I have indicated, and I will not even refer to the last act, except to observe that it recycles a detail from "Fatal Attraction" in an ingenious and merciful way. The ending is, in fact, preposterous, depending as thrillers so often do on elaborate plans that depend on the killer hitting all his marks and picking up on all his cues.

For that matter (I will speak cautiously) why is there a person under that bed? To kill Scott, I suppose, but when they struggle, why oh why does she not recognize him? To sacrifice this scene would have meant losing the Clue of the Draft Under the Bookcase, but with a little more imagination the hidden room could have been played for creepy chills and occult clues, and we could have lost the big "Carrie" moment. Another excellent question: How can a driver crash a speeding car and be sure who will live and who will die?

This keeps reading like a negative review. I've got to get a grip on myself. See, I like movies that make me ask goofy questions like this, as long as they absorb and entertain me, and have actors who can go the distance. Angelina Jolie, like Daryl Hannah, is one of those beauties you somehow never see playing a domesticated housewife. She's more of a free-standing object of wonder, a force of intrigue. Ethan Hawke has the ability to be in a thriller and yet actually seem like a real gallery owner; the art on the walls during his gallery opening looks like a group show from Mrs. Gradgrind's third-grade class, but that's contemporary art for you. And all I can say about Kiefer Sutherland, apart from praise for his good work in the past, is that he seems to have graduated from prime suspect to the parallel category of obvious suspect.

The movie was directed by D.J. Caruso, whose "The Salton Sea" (2002) included the most unforgettably weird villains in recent memory; you remember Vincent D'Onofrio's Pooh-Bear and his little plastic nose. In "Taking Lives," he understands that a certain genre of thriller depends more upon style and tone than upon plot; it doesn't matter if you believe it walking out, as long as you were intrigued while it was happening.

Parents need to know that this is an R-rated thriller with intense and graphic violence. There are graphic injuries and grisly dead bodies, including some decomposed and one badly burned, plus a severed finger and a bloody wound. There are many tense scenes with characters in peril and one (apparently) especially horrific injury. Characters drink, smoke, and use strong language. There are sexual references and a sexual situation including nudity. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.

In TAKING LIVES, Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie) is an FBI profiler who immerses herself in her cases. She eats alone in an elegant hotel room, staring at photos of crime scenes and corpses, and getting as up close and personal at murder scenes in order to solve crimes. Scott is brought in by the Canadian police to help them solve a murder linked to other killings, probably the work of a man who kills men his age and size and then takes over their lives until it is time to move on to the next, "like a hermit crab -- he outgrows one body and starts looking for a new one." The only witness is Costa (Ethan Hawke), an artist preparing for a big show. Illeana is not sure whether to trust him, arrest him, or fall for him. But is what draws her to him the part of her that understands killers?

Jolie's character is inconsistently conceived here, forcing her to take on almost as many personalities as the killer, cool professional, tomboy feminist, girlish romantic, and nesting loner. She has to be tough and vulnerable as the whims of the script demand, and that takes some of the steam out of the story.

But director D.J. Caruso and a strong cast make the best of the potboiler material, creating a nicely creepy atmosphere and knowing when to surprise the audience with a shock -- or a laugh -- to release the tension. So if you don't try to make it all make sense, you might find it to be a thriller with a couple of genuine thrills.

Where would we be without The Silence Of The Lambs? Certainly minus a zillion serial-killer pics, that's for sure. Ashley Judd wouldn't have a career. And Angelina Jolie would perhaps spend more of her time in movies worthy of her considerable talents, instead of getting bogged down in slick-but-derivative psycho-chillers like The Bone Collector and Taking Lives.

It starts off promisingly enough, a 1983-set prologue (two kids, a truck, a nasty death) piquing curiosity before the action jumps to present-day Montreal. The setup, characters and scenarios are strictly standard - - Detective Paquette (Olivier Martinez) is seriously miffed when Jolie's FBI profiler takes over his investigation; she turns out to be a loner, self-contained and (surprise!) obsessed - - but the intrigue is undeniable. Especially when Ethan Hawke's art dealer arrives on the scene, wearing a string of red herrings around his neck. Okay, so this is-he-the-killer-or-isn't-he? routine is an old one, but it works - - right up to the very end.

Add some polished editing, a classy Philip Glass score that, for once, isn't too intrusive and some solid performances (Hawke is especially good), and you have the makings of a gripping thriller. Then things begin to unravel. Slowly at first, but faster and faster as we approach the ludicrous finale.

For starters, Jolie's super-professional FBI agent begins to fall for her prime suspect. Or, as she puts it in her jargon-heavy way:" "I might be having a reaction to the witness"." Next up, we get Kiefer Sutherland popping up as Possible Killer No2, just to keep us guessing. (Mind you, his 24 schedule was obviously tough cos he's only got time to show his face two or three times.) And finally this most manipulative of movies ends with the most manipulative of climaxes, Jolie going to the kind of deserted farmhouse that people only go to in films. Yawn.

And yawn again, because the clichs don't end there. Endless driving rain? That'll be Se7en. Frantic car chase? Take your pick, starting with The French Connection. A pursuit through the Montreal Jazz Festival, all banging drums and piercing horns? Try Double Jeopardy.

Getting progressively worse as it goes on, Taking Lives has only two ideas of real note. One, that the serial killer adopts his victims' identities, literally taking their lives (""He's like a hermit crab"," ventures Jolie's impossibly intuitive special agent. ""He outgrows one shell and then he's looking for the next one""). And two, at its heart lies a neat gender reversal, Hawke's weakling being the one who needs protecting, Jolie's tough cookie purposefully doing the rough stuff.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.

This serial killer has been taking lives (look at that) since he was younger. Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, My Dreams) does an incredible job in the scene where he figures out this is what he wants to do and kills the first guy whose identity he takes, with a dropkick into oncoming traffic.

James Costa Was Serial Killer Martin Asher, Whose M.O. Was To Take the Identities and Lives of His Victims; To Catch the Killer, FBI Special Agent Illeana Scott Pretended to Be Pregnant with Costa's Twins, and During a Struggle Stabbed Him With a Pair of Scissors in the Heart

3a8082e126