(andPOP) - Untraceable unfolds as a standard edge-of-seat psychological drama that most movie critics will probably pan for its by-the-book approach, its one-dimensional characters or its far-fetched premise based on a killer with a keyboard as his murder weapon.
But let’s be serious here. Can predictability really be punishable in the thriller movie genre? It’s the genre that has let Jodie Foster play the same character in almost every film she’s done in the past decade. It’s the genre that reigns box-office charts weekend after weekend with its prototypical grit and gore. It’s the genre that will continue to give us Saw flicks every Halloween until teens get tired of gruesome torture scenes (can’t see this happening in the foreseeable future). Viewers find comfort in their favourite thriller’s formulaic nature. The reassurance of knowing things will all work out in the end somehow makes a scene where a victim’s skin is burned off by sulfuric acid relatively acceptable. The thriller, like the romantic comedy, exists to give fans exactly what they were expecting.
Untraceable succeeds at delivering its thriller-esque plot conventionalities while also offering up a smart dosage of fascination and suspense. Add in some chilling social commentary aimed at the post-YouTube generation and you’ve got yourself an intelligently crafted piece of work.
Diane Lane plays Jennifer Marsh, an Internet crimes FBI agent entangled in a Web hunt for a computer geek turned lunatic. Sporting dark circles under her eyes and very little makeup, Lane channels her best Jodie with a remarkably unglamourous but strong performance that translates well on screen. She leads her team in a fight to take down the tech- savvy psycho who gets his sadistic kicks out of setting up a web site that streams each of his graphic murders live, with the fate of the tormented victims left in the hands of the public. The more hits the site gets from curious mouse-wielding accomplices, the faster the captives succumb to their fatality. Untraceable does raise some thought-provoking, conversation-stimulating questions about our voyeuristic, violence-hungry world. But the cynical implications are left underdeveloped and almost overshadowed by torture scenes that will leave you cringing, wincing or turning away—either from shock or from simple release of tension.
There are a few strong plot points hidden between the gratuitous violence- no matter how conventional. When the game of cat and mouse between Marsh and the murder predictable becomes personal, director Gregory Hoblit (“Primal Fear”,“Fracture”) shows off his seasoned chops and creates the perfect amount of apprehension and dread as the story tumbles on and the clock ticks down.
It may not be explicitly original or meticulously plotted, but it’s chilling and effective enough to satisfy thrill-seeking audiences.
And there is Colin Hanks. Yes, as in Tom’s son. The superstar offspring adds a certain spark to the flick as the resident comic relief and Marsh’s scene-stealing best buddy. Billy Burke (Fracture) gives a forgettable performance as the cop with a subtle crush on our widowed heroine. The romance is thankfully never fully explored and the focus is kept on Marsh and her team’s race to track down a virtually untraceable technical mastermind.
Untraceable hopes to poke, jab, and nudge at our deepest curiosities by posing the inevitable question: If a real-life cyber-killing copycat were to immortalize, would the public response be the same? Are people so perverse and addicted to the web that they would willingly become accessories to murder for an electronic fix of chills and thrills? Probably.
But beneath it’s moral message, Untraceable is just another end-of-January box-office filler, existing solely to give audiences a well-deserved break from Oscar hopefuls and Rambo remakes.
