In March, I watched on Netflix a 2000 crime thriller called The Watcher, where James Spader is a cop trying to catch a serial killer (Keanu Reeves) who murdered women in L.A., then followed Spader to Chicago to taunt him and kill more women. He keeps messing with him by sending him a picture of a random young woman he’s stalking, and giving him 12 hours to try to find her and save her before Reeves kills her in her home. Spader is also reeling from Reeves having killed his girlfriend and being addicted to pills and off the force.
I watched this mainly for the cast. Spader is great at playing weird tortured loner types, and while I didn’t really buy Reeves as a serial killer, as it didn’t feel convincing, he was still charismatic to watch. There was some bad early 2000s editing choices, like random slow-mo of Reeves as a shitty remix of “Dragula” plays, or a lot of white flashes as scene transitions. I also thought Marisa Tomei was totally wasted as Spader’s therapist, who eventually is held captive as one of Reeves’ victims. It really seemed beneath her caliber as an actress to be cast as a bound and gagged damsel in distress victim.
I did like the cat and mouse chase feel of the film, like when the cops would have about 12 hours to put out an APB on an unknown woman targeted for murder and spend the whole day on foot with fliers and asking people about her and trying to get minor clues from the photo of her. It was somewhat original and different to see in a cop movie, and gave it some good suspense.
So this was largely just a low-rent thriller, but still engaging to watch for the actors’ performances and somewhat creative storytelling.
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