Untraceable:
FBI Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) and colleague Griffin Dowd (Colin Hanks), work evenings in the F.B.I Cyber Crimes unit in Portland where they monitor all things online and catch bad guys. They are made aware of a website called www.killwithme.com where they witness a kitten that is starved to death over a real time web feed.
Using tools at their disposal they try and close down the site, but it keeps coming back, before going of it’s own accord. A short while later the site is back only this time the game has got serious, instead of an animal it shows a grown man being tortured, the worst thing being that the more hits the website gets the quicker the man dies.
Marsh and Dowd along with Portland Police Detective Eric Box (Billy Burke) try and track down the killer before he kills again.
Whilst Untraceable may be a little predictable in places with me having second guessed some of the plot quite a bit in advance it is not a bad movie, in fact I found it really enjoyable, moving at a brisk pace, yet not feeling rushed and looking absolutely gorgeous on my 32” LCD screen.
The premise of the script and something that is touched upon in the extras is that the internet can be a wonderful place that allows us to learn and soak up knowledge, but in the same token it can be an evil place, where anonymity rules and that people can do what they want to reckless abandon, where you can view (if you so wish) sick and twisted information and material.
It is a valid point really, if you investigate something like the outbreaks of computer viruses and Trojans, or emails that pretend to be from you bank asking you to log in to clarify your details you can begin the detect just how wary you need to be when using the internet.
Untraceable puts its message over in a clever way, it uses technical jargon to a minimum and jargon it does use sounds convincing and you feel that this could happen. At least in terms of the killer broadcasting these live killings over the internet, although I think you need to suspend some belief in terms of the quality of the live video stream.
I found Diane Lane convincing in her role as Jennifer Marsh. She works the night shift so that she can spend time with her daughter Annie (Perla Haney-Jardine), she is assisted in this parental task by her mother Stella (Mary Beth Hurt). She switches between agent and mother with superb ease, and we feel comfortable with her in either “mode”.
Her colleague Griffin (Colin Hanks) is fairly geeky and enjoys using his work computer for dating, ebay and chatting to members of the opposite sex, although not in a sleazy manner, they have a good screen rapport and they are obviously friends outside of work. He provides some of the more humorous moments in the film.
We are introduced to Detective Eric Box (Billy Burke) early on, he is the liaison between the F.B.I and Portand Police department and does a sterling job as handsome, yet hardened policeman who offers Marsh support both directly in helping find the killer but also on a personal level too, the on screen chemistry between him and lane is apparent.
Although I enjoyed the film immensely there are faults. We are introduced to the killer about 30 minutes in. I felt that this certainly took some of the punch out of the movie. As with a lot of films like this we tend to be introduced to the killer at some point but I think it did come too early. Also because films like this do tend to follow a particular path you can be assured that you will guess some of the plots moves way before they happened. This is a shame as Untraceable is a film that really looks the part with high production values. But that aside the film was entertaining and that’s all I can really ask of a film.
The look and feel of the film is superb, the night shots in particular looked incredibly dark without losing details, offices having a chrome, blue hue that made you feel everything was high tech and expensive. The 5.1 Dolby Sound too was very good, dialogue was clear throughout never really getting lost in the “noise” of the film.
Extras:
Commentary: Director Gregory Hoblit, Producer Hawk Koch and Production Designer Paul Eads:
Tracking Untraceable: This is the making of documentary taking us through various aspects of the film and script and talking about its perceived relevancy in today’s world.
The Personal File: We find out more about the main characters in the film. Lots of back slapping and people telling us how wonderful everyone is.
Blue Print of Murder: An interesting extra that speaks mainly with the production designer Paul Eads and Cindy Carr the Set Director on how they created the look an feel of the film, we also speak with the Location Manager and Special Effects Supervisor. I enjoyed this extra and felt it quite educational. Still a little too many “everyone is wonderful” type comments. Approx 13 minutes
Anatomy of a Murder: This takes a look into creating the victims bodies. Approx 6 minutes.
Overall:
A well made, good looking film that will entertain from beginning to end although a little predictable.