Untraceable
Friday, 29 Feb 2008 15:41
Diane Lane stars as an FBI agent in pursuit of a 21st-century serial killer.
Directed by Gregory Hoblit, out date February 29th, starring Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Joseph Cross, Billy Burke and Mary Beth Hurt, running time 100 minutes.
In a nutshell…
Serial-killer thriller with moral mission.
What's it all about?
Cybercrime expert Jennifer Marsh (Lane) catches online fraudsters by night and brings up her young daughter by day. When a new site called killwithme.com starts streaming live murders - with the victims being killed faster the more hits the site receives - a cat-and-mouse game begins which quickly becomes personal.
Marsh teams up with cop Eric Box (Billy Burke) and fellow FBI agent Griffin Dowd (Colin Hanks) as she tries to track down the killer, who covers his tracks at every turn.
Meanwhile, the murders become increasingly gruesome and the victims are dying faster as the site gains a fanbase. As the killer remains one step ahead, Marsh must piece the clues together before she loses everything.
Who's in it?
Director Gregory Hoblit started his career in TV with 80s series Hill Street Blues and LA Law. He made his film directorial debut with the psychological thriller Primal Fear (1996) followed by Fallen (1998), Frequency (2000), and the WWII drama Hart's War (2002), starring Bruce Willis .
Diane Lane, who stars as Jennifer Marsh, made her acting debut at the age of 13 opposite Laurence Olivier in A Little Romance (1979) and has starred in many films since - but only received worldwide fame relatively recently, after her role in blockbuster hit The Perfect Storm (2000).
Colin Hanks, eldest son of Tom Hanks, plays agent Griffin Dowd. Hanks has previously starred in teen movie Orange County alongside Jack Black, and also had a supporting role in King Kong, also featuring Jack Black.
As an example...
"You've been out on the streets too long. It's a jungle in there." - Marsh
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Unlikely. Although Diane Lane's lead performance is convincing, this is not going to win any nominations.
What the others say
"Genre cliches arrive at broadband speed, from the obstructive senior officer to the cute daughter's interrupted birthday party." - Ben Walters, Time Out London
"With a very creepy premise about a serial killer using the Internet to kill his victims, Untraceable mostly delivers the chills, despite its conventionalities." – Kit Bowen, Hollywood.com
So is it any good?
The internet is full of horror stories, with stalkers and the occasional cannibal frequently making the news so it was only a matter of time before Hollywood delivered a cyber psychopath for the 21st century.
The unsettling suspicion that a killer broadcasting his murders on the internet really would attract an immediate and huge audience - despite their indirect participation in the deaths - keeps the interest in this film. The innovative and grisly murder scenes are also likely to appeal to Saw and Hostel fans.
The central theme of the film of audience-as-accomplice is a clever twist on the 'torture porn' films, and attempts to deliver a moral message - although it seems a little hypocritical given its graphic content. It plays to the conventions of the genre, and there are few surprises.
For the most part, it is a creepy thriller, atmospherically shot on location in Portland, Oregon and has its moments of sheer heart-pounding terror, but remains somewhat predictable despite its disturbing premise.
6/10
Sarah Routledge
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