**** CONTAIN SPOILERS *****
This film is pretty slow paced, barely making its audience break out a sweat.
There was two plots going on simultaneously, one about the investigation on the murder of a woman in which the identities of the guys who did it are not hidden. The other being the lead detective Cassie, played by Sandra Bullock, dealing with her dark past.
The first plot is mildly more interesting, with a couple of kids plotting a murder with all the forensics details planned out so as to confuse the investigators. What makes it interesting is the dynamics between the two kids, both from vastly different background, mutually coming together because of their one thing in common resulting in their constant need to be depended on each other.
Beyond that, other parts of the story does not go so great. Such as when one of our calculating killer who studied every aspect of forensic evidence and how to forge them, happens to vomits while dumping the body and forgets to clean up after himself. And they plant evidence so as to produce a conflicting profile of the killer, while letting the trail lead to a suspect that is complete opposite of what the investigators were expecting, leading to suspicion. Not very good if you want to have an open and shut case pointing to a third person.
Compared to the much more realistic NYPD Blues, the dual interrogation that takes place looks pretty lame, with the investigators laying out their theory and expecting a confession. Getting none, they slowly start floating the idea of "the first one to snitch gets to live." This is done, as opposed to playing off each of the perpetrators by revealing their theory as the other suspect's admission. It is much more effective to let the suspects think the incriminating information is obtained from their criminal counterpart as opposed to some wild thing that the detectives dreamed up. As the lawyer for one of the kid shows up and gets him released, they could continue to play the second kid until he breaks down instead of releasing him.
I thought the high tech stuff in the interrogation rooms was going to delve deeper into the suspects than what could be seen with they naked eye, like voice stress analysis, IR camera for heat distribution in the body and perspiration buildup. But none of those things were there. It was a lot of gadgety setup over nothing.
The detective's work seems pretty shoddy for someone who is the best. Missing the ring on the suspect in the first place, apprehending the suspects by telling one to come over and forgetting the other one. They were all critical things in which it affects the story, so I guess they were written in that way.
As to the second plot, it is a total waste of time. It is about Cassie, being a victim herself in the past, and having it rule her life. Turning her into some character in which her co-workers label as hyena. There is almost no purpose to this subplot, except for the fact she now automatically identifies self-centered rich kids as suspects because she thinks they think they could get away with anything. More of a convenient feature so she could jump from A-Z without investigating the B-Y part.
There were a few too many of those `Don't go there scenes' for my liking, turning it into one of those cliché ploys used in slasher movies. And the final climax with the fake suicide, sudden burst of strength from a person on the verge of passing out and dying, the collapse of the porch, and of course the handling of the stick. It was just too over the top.
The acting was forgetful by Sandra Bullock, she seems to either knows how to play romantic comedy or tomboy roles, with nothing in between. The only person who was good was Michael Pitt, who played the mysterious recluse genius Justin.
All in all, nothing great about the film, but watch-able except for some of the hollywood add-ons.
This film is pretty slow paced, barely making its audience break out a sweat.
There was two plots going on simultaneously, one about the investigation on the murder of a woman in which the identities of the guys who did it are not hidden. The other being the lead detective Cassie, played by Sandra Bullock, dealing with her dark past.
The first plot is mildly more interesting, with a couple of kids plotting a murder with all the forensics details planned out so as to confuse the investigators. What makes it interesting is the dynamics between the two kids, both from vastly different background, mutually coming together because of their one thing in common resulting in their constant need to be depended on each other.
Beyond that, other parts of the story does not go so great. Such as when one of our calculating killer who studied every aspect of forensic evidence and how to forge them, happens to vomits while dumping the body and forgets to clean up after himself. And they plant evidence so as to produce a conflicting profile of the killer, while letting the trail lead to a suspect that is complete opposite of what the investigators were expecting, leading to suspicion. Not very good if you want to have an open and shut case pointing to a third person.
Compared to the much more realistic NYPD Blues, the dual interrogation that takes place looks pretty lame, with the investigators laying out their theory and expecting a confession. Getting none, they slowly start floating the idea of "the first one to snitch gets to live." This is done, as opposed to playing off each of the perpetrators by revealing their theory as the other suspect's admission. It is much more effective to let the suspects think the incriminating information is obtained from their criminal counterpart as opposed to some wild thing that the detectives dreamed up. As the lawyer for one of the kid shows up and gets him released, they could continue to play the second kid until he breaks down instead of releasing him.
I thought the high tech stuff in the interrogation rooms was going to delve deeper into the suspects than what could be seen with they naked eye, like voice stress analysis, IR camera for heat distribution in the body and perspiration buildup. But none of those things were there. It was a lot of gadgety setup over nothing.
The detective's work seems pretty shoddy for someone who is the best. Missing the ring on the suspect in the first place, apprehending the suspects by telling one to come over and forgetting the other one. They were all critical things in which it affects the story, so I guess they were written in that way.
As to the second plot, it is a total waste of time. It is about Cassie, being a victim herself in the past, and having it rule her life. Turning her into some character in which her co-workers label as hyena. There is almost no purpose to this subplot, except for the fact she now automatically identifies self-centered rich kids as suspects because she thinks they think they could get away with anything. More of a convenient feature so she could jump from A-Z without investigating the B-Y part.
There were a few too many of those `Don't go there scenes' for my liking, turning it into one of those cliché ploys used in slasher movies. And the final climax with the fake suicide, sudden burst of strength from a person on the verge of passing out and dying, the collapse of the porch, and of course the handling of the stick. It was just too over the top.
The acting was forgetful by Sandra Bullock, she seems to either knows how to play romantic comedy or tomboy roles, with nothing in between. The only person who was good was Michael Pitt, who played the mysterious recluse genius Justin.
All in all, nothing great about the film, but watch-able except for some of the hollywood add-ons.