Review: Faces in the Crowd

Milla Jovovich plays a kindergarten teacher who, after a night of drinking with her girlfriends (including Sarah Wayne Callies), is witness to a serial killer pouncing on his latest victim. Unfortunately for Jovovich, the killer sees her, and although she escapes, she ends up with a head injury. When she wakes up in hospital, something seems seriously screwy. She can no longer recognise faces. Amnesia? Nope, it’s a rare condition of facial blindness, where even those closest to her are no longer recognisable. Whilst Jovovich goes to see Marianne Faithfull to help her adjust to her condition, a pair of cops (including Julian McMahon) attempt to get her to recall what she saw. But given even her jerk boyfriend Michael Shanks’ face keeps changing on her, that isn’t going to be easy and the killer is still on the loose.

 

Cheesy as it is, this 2011 thriller from writer-director Julien Magnat (a second directorial effort, after much TV animation screenwriting) nearly manages to provide solid, silly entertainment. Nearly. Milla Jovovich is actually quite good in the lead, and for once she isn’t running away from fireballs and bad techno music (Though she’s playing a kindergarten teacher again, after playing one in “Stone”). She’s easily the best thing in the film. The central idea is really interesting too, if spectacularly silly at the same time. I mean, the condition Jovovich suffers from is probably derived from something real (I’ve certainly heard stories like it on TV current affairs shows), but I can’t say I bought the way it was presented. I mean, how can something that affects your eyes mean that you can’t recognise someone’s voice? She should very easily have been able to have recognised those close to her by their voice at the very least. And how bloody blind do you have to be to not notice that Julian McMahon is sporting the worst fake beard in cinematic history for the first two-thirds of the film? Personally, I was a bit suspicious about the hair on top of his head, too. If it’s not a rug then someone has fucked up in not noticing that his hair colour is completely different to his beard, and not in a ‘going slightly grey’ kinda way. I guess the reason for the faux goatee is that his character was going to shave it off anyway, so why bother growing a real one. Still, it’s the worst bit of fake facial hair you’ll ever see outside of “Who’s Harry Crumb?” (and that was a comedy).

 

McMahon is genuinely terrible here, though he’s never been much of an actor in my view. But every one of his scenes was just needlessly distracting, either because of his oddball visage or his poor performance. Sarah Wayne Callies, whose irritating work is one of the main reasons why I stopped watching “The Walking Dead” (The other reason? I can’t be bothered watching zombies for ½ an hour a week. It’s too repetitive), is also pretty poor here. She’s extremely annoying, and needlessly calling attention to herself in what is a pretty superfluous role. Completing the triple-threat of poor supporting performances, Marianne Faithful isn’t terrible, but she still has no business being in movies.

 

Getting back to the movie itself, the film attempts to throw in some red herrings to fool you, but even someone with a poor memory for faces could or should spot the killer very early by using a very simple movie law: Who is the least necessary character to the plot? Then again, the culprit actually doesn’t make much sense when you think about it. There’s simply no way they could get away with it, even with the convenience of facial blindness.

 

I also have to take issue with the character of the boyfriend. If I found the Bryce Dallas Howard character implausibly insensitive in “50/50”, I have to call this dude out for the same thing. I didn’t believe anyone could be that much of a dick. The ending is also a terrible downer, it just didn’t sit right with me.

 

Having said that, these flaws do not ruin the film, they simply make it watchable instead of genuinely good. It’s one of the few whodunits where you can still enjoy it even if you think you know the killer, because there’s still enough doubt that you might be wrong, even if you’re pretty sure you aren’t. And the central premise is so crazy that it’s entertaining enough that guessing the killer isn’t the be all and end all, perhaps. It’s also an extremely interesting-looking film, and you certainly don’t get a ‘Made in cheapo Canada’ vibe from it, though it’s a tad blue perhaps. I loved how every character was played by several different actors at some point, due to Jovovich’s facial blindness condition. That was a really cool and constantly disarming idea. I take issue with how Mr. Magnat has filmed the sex scene, though. It’s one of those frustrating and unhelpful ones where you see lots of facial expressions and a montage of belly buttons, chest hair, upper thighs, etc. It doesn’t give the scene any coherency at all. Sex scenes should not be art pieces or MTV montages. They should be treated the same way I think action scenes should be treated- as straight-forwardly done as possible.

 

Call it a near-miss, but it’s certainly a fine showcase for producer-star Jovovich, who isn’t an easy actress to cast. The central idea offers some fun, as dopey as it is.

 

Rating: C+