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NOBODY
SHOULD BE 'WATCHING'...
Written
by Dean
Kish
Cast::
James Spader, Marisa Tomei, Keanu Reeves, Ernie Hudson
 Premise:
FBI agent Joel Campbell has gone into hiding. Traumatized
and beaten down after years of pursuing psychotic killers
in Los Angeles, he is trying to carve a new, less stressful,
life for himself in Chicago. But his guilty past follows
him. He has only been in Chicago for a few months when
there is a rash of gruesome murders, all of which follow
a sickeningly familiar pattern: They are undoubtedly
the work of one man - David Allen Griffin. The cunning
and tormenting Griffin prodded and eluded Campbell for
years in Los Angeles. And now he has pursued his tracker
to Chicago.
Overall
Rating:
 (out of
4)
Rated
R for violence and language
Are
the masses ready for another serial killer movie? Especially
one starring Keanu Reeves?
“The
Watcher” has your typical serial killer plot with
a burned-out FBI profiler (James Spader) moving from
LA to Chicago after one of his cases goes terribly wrong.
Unbeknownst to him, the serial killer (Keanu Reeves)
responsible for all his pain follows him to the Windy
City.
First off, the saddest thing about “The Watcher
has to be the real lack of tension and surprises. The
film is basic and very tame compared to all the serial
killer films before it. I truly believe this could have
been a network TV movie of the week. The networks won’t
have to edit this film to much for TV.
The
second saddest thing has to be the film’s music.
Whoever dreamed that these songs would add tension or
atmosphere must have been mad. The music makes some
scenes almost like music videos or dance numbers. This
does beg the question were the killings supposed to
be dance numbers?
I have always liked Spader and how he has the knack
to bring to life the most basic of scripts. This talent
is evident in films such as “Bad Influence”
and “Jack’s Back”. I have always thought
if he had a better agent he could have been a strong
Hollywood leading man. In “Watcher”, Spader
delivers an engaging performance with the drugged and
burned out profiler but the director never really gives
him any charisma scenes to let his ability shine through.
The scenes where he broods in front of the enlarged
victim photos could have been some key moments for the
film. Also when he is filled with pain during some of
his flashbacks we really never see the worry or emotion
Spader really needed there. Nevertheless, Spader is
still the best element of this film.
As for Reeves, his performance gets better with time
in the film but a lot of people in the audience are
going to have problems with believing this type-casted
good guy actually strangles women. The reason for this
is the film never shows Reeves actually strangling someone
with psychotic eyes and enthusiasm even though he claims
to be this mad killer. Every time the scene approaches
we are granted with a darkened silhouette coupled with
some music this is an obvious attempt at suspense but
really just bores us.
The third lead is Marisa Tomei who hasn’t been
seen in a major film in a long time. She plays Spader’s
psychologist and I do believe that character was one
of the main reasons why this film had no tension. This
whole character really wasn’t necessary. All she
really did was fill time and pull us away from the suspense.
I
would have liked to have seen this film develop a new
kind of angle on the whole serial killer cliché.
Why not play up the beat the clock angles to the extreme
and have the whole movie of Spader running around trying
to save one victim.
(2
of 5) So Says the Soothsayer.
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