Review: Suspect Zero

Troubled, aspirin-chewing FBI agent Aaron Eckhart is receiving taunting faxes from an apparent serial killer (Sir Ben Kingsley) who doesn’t seem to have an modus operandi. Except…doesn’t that in fact create an M.O.? Oops, not supposed to think about that one, I guess. Carrie Anne Moss plays Eckhart’s partner and former…erm…partner in the romantic sense, too.

 

It’s an interesting idea, unfortunately this 2004 E. Elias Merhige (the much more successful “Shadow of the Vampire”) killer-thriller is told in such a fashion that the ‘interesting idea’ is kept mostly from the audience…unless you’ve oh, I don’t know, read or seen anything about it at all, of course (Well, what else is there for critics to talk about or trailers to show?). Seriously, why focus the story on Eckhart’s troubled detective, who has little idea about anything, when Ben Kingsley (in a great performance sadly chopped up and often filmed in tight close-up) is right there pretty much holding all the cards? His character is far more interesting and the way the story is told (think Michael Bay meets Tony Scott meets Edward Scissorhands), the film is so much more confusing than it could’ve been.

 

The screenplay is by Zak Penn and Billy Ray (the former co-wrote “Last Action Hero” and the latter co-wrote “Colour of Night”, which might explain a few things), was apparently also worked on by the likes of Paul Schrader and (somewhat surprisingly) Ben Affleck. Perhaps Merhige shouldn’t have been credited as director so much as ‘mis-director’ of the film, though I guess Penn and Ray deserve the blame more in choosing the wrong way to tell the story. An unfortunate misfire, as this could have been something interesting.

 

Rating: C