Brilliant Story but Hampered by Bad Acting

Rating: 8/10 (19 September 2005)

Watching Saw is like a blind date. Within the first 5 minutes you kinda know what your getting yourself into. The positive: This is one creepy, suspenseful, scary film. The negatives: Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell are terrible in this film. Cary Elwes is a good actor but just not here. Leigh Whannell is simply horrific. On to the film!
Saw opens with Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes) handcuffed, by the ankle, in a locked, dirty, room ... Lying between them is a rotting corpse and a guy. Each discover they've been kidnapped by the mysterious Jigsaw killer, who has left a message for each of them. Adam is told to simply survive. Dr. Gordon is told that if he does not kill Adam in a specified amount of time, his wife and kids will die. Each are given clues by Jigsaw in order to accomplish their individual "goals" ....
We soon learn that Jigsaw has done this before ... forcing a woman to kill another man to take off an apparatus that would rip her face apart ... forcing a man to climb through razor wire ... forcing a man to burn himself to death. Jigsaw is able to make people kill each other (or themselves) in order to survive. Detectives Tapp and Sing (Danny Glover and Ken Leung) are hot on his trail.
The plot has good twists and turns and the props / production value is high. There are a couple of missteps with the editing, but all in all good. Just wish they would have recast the leads.