Great story told in a less great way (possible spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (30 May 2002)

The story is excellent, but somehow the fast editing (Mtv style is not appropriate for this quiet Alaskan town) and all those extreme hand held close ups managed to alienate me again and again. It was particularly annoying in the beginning, when information about the crime was given, to have all these silly split second flash backs (or just flashes) pop up on the screen. Because of this the movie never got to that stage when I forgot about the camera and editing and followed the story. Sometimes it was obvious that some of the dialogue had been cut, it sounded like a commercial: no pauses between sentences. There were however good moments there, especially the lumber scene, the fog scene and the scenes with Dormer in Finch's apartment. Also the scene with the girl at the hotel when she talks about two kinds of people moving to Alaska. Hillary Swank did a great job as the blue flaming police officer; modest and clever. Pacino somehow was the same as always (Any Given Sunday for example) and Williams was OK.
The ghost of Dormer was extremely well done as well as the logic of the whole story. The scene near the end when all the information had to be given to Burr was a bit awkward, but worked. The bottom line: great story, but not so great direction/editing. The credit goes to the writers, Nicolaj and Eric.