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A
young man travelling with a stranger pushes him in front of
a vehicle and takes his identity. A few years later a murdered
body turns up in Montreal, Canada. It is seriously mutilated,
but a forensic reconstruction is conducted under the orders
of Special Agent Illeana Scott of the FBI. Meanwhile, a woman
reports seeing her dead son, and when his body is exhumed
her story is substanciated. A witness to the murder has sketched
the recently seen son of the woman, who it turns out had a
favoured twin brother. The killer is temporarily living his
victims' lives because he wants to remove himself from his
earlier life - in other words, any life is better than his
own. Scott gets drawn to the witness, but is he the innocent
in fear of his life that he portrays?...
It's
easy to dismiss this film as another in hundreds of American-style
cops and robbers. Granted, it's set in Montreal, Canada, where
there's a large French quarter, but you still have your mean,
gun-toting detectives and a hard-nosed FBI agent, played by
Angelina Tomb Raider Jolie. However, it is different
in that the killer's sole motive is to live another person's
life for a while, choosing somebody with as little ties as
possible, discovering a bit about them before murdering them
and mutilating the body so it can't be recognised.
Ethan
Hawkes is solid as the villain of the piece and Jolie, who
I've never really thought has had much going for her in the
acting fraternity, aside from her admittedly good looks, herself
puts in a good performance here - managing at relevant stages
of the film to appear both tough and vulnerable.
The
epilogue scene serves as the main conclusion to the film and
incorporates a clever twist. However, having said everything
above, Taking Lives still comes across as a low-key
TV movie, far removed from blockbuster status and having a
budget look representing the change from the director's supermarket
food bill.
Ty
Power
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