Cast: James Spader, Keanu Reeves, Marisa Tomei, Ernie Hudson, Robert Cicchini, Chris Ellis, Jenny McShane
Director: Joe Charbanic
Producers: Chris Eberts, Elliott Lewitt, Jeff Rice, Nile Niami
Screenplay: David Elliot and Clay Ayers
Cinematography: Michael Chapman
Music: Marco Beltrami
U.S. Distributor: Universal Pictures
A serial killer on the loose. A burnt-out FBI agent with one last chance at redemption. Cat-and-mouse games between the cop and the psycho. Sound familiar? Throw in a few uninspired shoot-outs and chase scenes and you have the building blocks of a humdrum, generic serial killer movie - and that's exactly what The Watcher is. Lacking the kind of plot development, character richness, and general intelligence of offerings like The Silence of the Lambs, Seven, and even the recent The Cell, The Watcher proves to be low on suspense and high on contrivances. It boasts a couple of interesting ideas, but neither is developed to the point where they make the picture more than passably watchable. This is B-movie fare that will look a lot better on cable at 2 am than in a multiplex at 7:30.
The FBI agent is Joel Campbell (James Spader), who has recently moved from Los Angeles to Chicago after failing to apprehend the notorious serial killer David Griffin (Keanu Reeves), a meticulous man who watches his victims for weeks before moving in and brutally murdering them with piano wire. Now, Griffin has followed Campbell to Chicago and started up his spree again, only this time, he wants to make the "game" more interesting. A day before each killing, he sends a picture of the intended victim to Campbell, giving him until 9 pm to find and save the woman from her fate. Despite being wracked by guilt and strung out on a variety of different medications, Campbell heads the task force searching for Griffin, but, instead of rescuing the chosen young women, all he can do is watch the body count rise.
The Watcher tries to make a point of how, in today's insular society, people no longer really notice one another. We intersect the lives of dozens, if not hundreds, of individuals each day, but how many of their faces would we remember if called upon to do so? Had The Watcher accomplished something more significant than to introduce this idea and play with it a little, it might have been a fascinating motion picture. Unfortunately, all the screenplay does with the concept is to use it as a convenient plot element that can be discarded when it's no longer necessary.
The other potentially fascinating element that the movie cursorily examines is how an investigator or an investigation can empower a mass murderer. This isn't an uncommon theme in serial killer movies, and the representation of the protagonist and the antagonist as possessing a twisted link (or, in this case, a "brotherhood") can raise the stakes. In The Watcher, however, this aspect is treated in a perfunctory manner. Despite being a building block of the plot, it is never effectively explored or exploited. The cops are particularly dense when it comes to this issue. (Actually, as in most movies of this genre, all of the cops except Campbell are dense - period.)
The acting and directing combine to knock The Watcher down a further notch. Spader's low-key portrayal of Campbell isn't the best approach. We never develop any degree of sympathy for him, and, since the victims are essentially faces without personalities, the audience is left adrift without a strong rooting interest. Keanu Reeves is surprisingly effective as a killer, with his easygoing charm and charismatic smile hiding a cold-blooded interior. The least impressive star is Marisa Tomei (playing Campbell's psychiatrist), who looks like she performed all of her scenes on one hour's sleep. Aside from appearing old and worn out, she comes across as listless - this is perhaps the most uninvolving role I have seen Tomei attempt. First time director Joe Charbanic doesn't help matters by going to Oliver Stone-like excesses in his use of strange angles and odd film stocks. He constantly calls attention to his "talent" as a filmmaker, jarring us out of the movie's reality. The Cell did a credible job of depicting the mind of a serial killer - the quick cuts, black-and-white shots, and blurred images employed here don't do the trick.
In general, serial killer movies fall into two categories - those that are serious about giving audiences genuine chills as well as material to mull over, and those that think a few quick scares are worth 90 minutes of unremarkable storytelling. The Watcher, despite striving to attain the former category, ends up definitively in the latter. Fans of the genre may not expect much in the way of originality, but they have the right to a more polished regurgitation of used elements than what is offered here.
© 2000 James Berardinelli