Taking Lives on DVD

Taking Lives is just a little bit more than a by-the-numbers whodunit thriller.

Angelina Jolie stars as Illeana Scott, an FBI profiler who’s brought in to tackle a serial killer who has evaded police for over 20 years.

After doing in his victims, the killer then assumes their identity, making it that much more difficult for the cops to nail him. But Illeana, like every other movie supercop, has some sort of “gift” that helps her learn more about the killer and hopefully bring him down.

She uses sophisticated, if highly unorthodox, methods of detection like lying in a hole in which a body was found, and meditating (or something). She seems like your typical Hollywood FBI profiler: brilliant, charismatic, lonely, and just a wee bit off, and we learn throughout the course of the movie that that description pretty much fits her to a T.

For the first hour, everything progresses exactly as you’d expect. They find the body, bring in the expert, question witnesses (including Costa, played brilliantly by Ethan Hawke), and stay a step and a half behind the bad guy until they have a breakthrough.

Once the breakthrough occurs, it ceases to be a whodunit thriller, and becomes a know-whodunit, now-need-to-catch-whodunit thriller. But is everything as it seems?

Is it ever?

Director D.J. Caruso has crafted a tremendously mediocre genre film, but it gives him a chance to show off his chops, of which he has quite a few. There’s plenty of suspense, creepy shadows, and some well-done bits of completely unnecessary violence. It probably would have been a great movie if Seven and The Silence of the Lambs weren’t already in the “Classics” bin.

On the other hand, it does have some things going for it that few movies have ever accomplished. First of all, Angelina Jolie shows off her naughty bits during a lengthy, very intriguing sex scene. Second, and equally impressively, there is a single instance in the film that made me cringe for several seconds. I call that impressive because, like most people of my generation, I’ve been completely desensitized to violence, especially in movies. There’s even another instance in which my jaw dropped in sheer disgust.

It was pretty cool.

On the other, other hand, a few things in the movie don’t really make any sense. You think they’ll be explained by the end of the movie, but days later you’ll still be wondering because they seemed like such integral parts of the film. And the killer’s sudden turn into psychosis seems pretty tacked on, like it’s only there to show you that this guy is the killer (which we could probably figure out by the fact that he kills the guy).

But I guess if you’re just looking for cheap entertainment, you can’t expect all the pieces of the puzzle to fit together perfectly all of the time.

So if you’re looking to see Angelina Jolie naked, or a not-bad-for-what-it-is kind of movie, Taking Lives should suffice. But if you’ve seen Seven or Silence of the Lambs, you may want to see them again instead.

The DVD is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, and the transfer features great detail, even during the darker scenes. Duller colors come through well, fleshtones are good, but a few shots look like they completely forgot to do anything with them.

There’s also some Dolby Digital 5.1 that does a good job of separating the creepy sound effects. The main speakers handle the big loads like dialogue and score, and they all share the rest of the responsibility very nicely.

Extras include a series of four documentaries that total (whoop-de-doo) 21 minutes. Titled “The Art of Collaboration,” “Profiling a Director,” “Bodies of Evidence,” and “Puzzle Within a Puzzle,” they all give everyone a chance to praise each other and talk about everything you don’t give a rat’s arse about.

But watch them after the movie, because they give away pretty much everything.

There’s also a very out of place gag reel that’s not really that funny. And don’t forget the trailer.

Taking Lives, from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
109 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1 16x9 enhanced), Dolby Digital 5.1
Starring Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland, Olivier Martinez, Tcheky Karyo and Gena Rowlands
Produced by Bernie Goldmann, Mark Canton
Screenplay by Jon Bokenkamp, Directed by D.J. Caruso

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