Movie Review: Untraceable

Gone are the days when a bullet to the chest or a slash of the throat sufficed in committing murder.

In a day and age where computers and the internet control almost every aspect of life, there is always the potential that someone somewhere is watching and waiting–for you.

Law enforcement has done their job well, tracing and stopping these cyber-stalkers. Until now.
Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) is an FBI agent in the cyber-crimes division whose job it is to track down internet criminals.

But what she soon realizes is that someone who doesn’t want to be found and has the skills to remain untraceable can stay hidden for quite some time.

Untraceable starts out promising, almost reminiscent of TV shows like Numb3rs and Without a Trace, but eventually takes a turn for the worse.

A serial killer is targeting his victims on-line and then broadcasting their death live on his site “Kill with Me,” and it the the job of the FBI to catch him before he kills again.

But what TV crime dramas have succeeded in depicting in 45 minutes, Untraceable fails to deliver in more than twice that time.

What the plot lacks is the suspense of “whodunit” while falling short in its attempt to convey the thrill of the hunt.

The film’s plot is relatively flat. No real twists or turns to keep you on the edge of your seat: a huge disappointed from the thrill-ride promised in the trailer.

In fact, watching the trailer proved to be more interesting and spell-binding than the movie itself (and certainly cheaper than a theatre ticket).

The fact that the audience has seen the face of the murderer before the authorities know who he is only heightens the frustration when they fail to capture him time after time.

What it does do instead is the very thing the film seems to be discouraging.

As part of the psychopathic plot of serial killer Owen Reilly, the more people that log on to his website the faster his victims die.

If the aim of the FBI is really to dissuade the American public from logging on to witness the brutal murders of their fellow citizens, why does the movie contain so much footage of the actual deaths?

The violence is gratuitous and unnecessary, and the presentation of death in the film sticks with the viewer like a vivid nightmare, clinging like a thick, dank darkness. There is a palpable heaviness upon leaving the theatre.

Perhaps the only things saving the film from complete disaster is the acting of Joseph Cross who plays Owen Reilly.

He is so convincing as a psychotic killer from his first moment on screen that his forboding presence sends a chill down your spine.

As he stands amongst a crowd of people watching Marsh and her team enter and search a house, he appears in stark contrast to the innocent bystanders around him.

While the crowd that is gathered in wondering anticipation, Reilly looks over the scene with a sly smile that taunts the unaware investigators to catch him if they can.

Even though his revenge motives are somewhat understandable and the punishment he delivers seem fit for the perceived crime, he is one villain with whom sympathy is impossible.

But his sick, twisted mentality bring into sharp focus similar individuals that truly exist off-screen.

Could there really be people who feel the way Cross’s character do and are capable of carrying out the sam heinous crimes? The answer is a resounding “yes.”

There are even those that, as the chat room connected to “Kill with Me” suggests, get a sick thrill out of watching people they don’t even know die.

“You know that if people weren’t logging on to watch you die, you’d be sitting in a pool of water,” Reilly tells one of his victims about to die.

And he’s right. The American public are accomplices in the murder of complete strangers.

Cross’s performance outshines any of his other costars’ and the film leaves something to be desired in the way of acting and plot.

Lane has flashes of brilliance, but generally disappoints. It’s as though the sobriety of the subject has infused the actors with a detrimental acting handicap.

In a way, though, much of the plot is implausible. No one is truly untraceable, especially from the federal government and if the perpetrator posed that big a threat, the FBI could have done more to discourage the public from logging on.

The last word on Untraceable: if crime dramas are your genre, stick to the TV for now.