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"Mindhunters" mostly food for thought |
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Written by NED O'REILLY
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Wednesday, 18 May 2005 |
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Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" (aka "Ten Little Indians") is the model for the kind of mystery that puts a bunch of people in a creepy place in bad weather with communications cut off to the outside world, and then kills them off one by one. This premise is so formulaic that you know at the outset that everyone will be suspected because everyone will have a motive.
The story will give you reasons to like some characters more than others so that you can be more shocked when the nice people die. Also, at least one person will appear dead, but somehow turn up alive and save the day.
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"Mindhunters"
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 Entertainment
 Art
Directed by Renny Harlin
Written by Wayne Kramer and Kevin Brodbin
Starring Christian Slater, Val Kilmer and LL Cool J
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"Mindhunters" uses all of these tactics and also throws in a few horror standbys (one guy's in a wheelchair, one woman freaks out when she's in the water, two characters are secretly sleeping with each other, live cats lurking around, dead cats hanging from the ceiling, etc.). The set up, though, is fairly fresh: six FBI profilers-in-training are sent to a deserted island normally used for Navy training that has a small town, like a movie set, complete with manikins playing all the townfolk. It also has a state-of-the art laboratory for forensic testing and a large weapons store. The guy in charge, Harris (Val Kilmer) appears to leave them there for the weekend, but after declaring that there's someone called The Puppeteer on the island and that they'll be solving his mock serial murders, no one believes that Harris has gone very far away.
Harris has also introduced his charges to an alleged government agent called Gabe Jensen (played with aplomb by James Todd Smith aka LL Cool J), who's an expert in profiling and just there to observe. Famous last words. After an evening of stress release partying under Jensen's watchful eye, all wake in the morning to their first mock killing. While investigating the scene, however, they spring a trap that really kills one of their number and the action takes off from there.
Kathryn Morris as Sara, the most vulnerable of the trainees, comes off believable as both a suspect and as an innocent. Smith/Cool J makes you forget he's a rapper most of the time, although you do wonder why he's the only African American. Without giving too much away, I'll say that I wish the energetic and affable Christian Slater as group leader J.D. Reston had more screen time. Johnny Lee Miller is wonderfully edgy as Lucas, the guy whose guilt and innocence change almost scene to scene. Clifton Collins Jr. plays the wheelchair-bound Vince, who seems to have a cat's 9 lives, and while it's hard to suspect that he's the killer, his performance is charged with engaging emotion.
The film is worth studying because it purports to be an intellectual exercise, utilizing many of the techniques we've learned from all the forensics shows on TV. Ultimately though, the clues the killer's identity are inconsistent and the red herrings get a little old.
Eventually, one of the characters figures out that the killer is exploiting each person's weakness and we want to rewind so we can figure out when each weakness was portrayed. The science elements are mostly lame, though, and it's the psychological elements that wind up being the most crucial. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
