A concept that falls well short of its potential

Rating: Null/10 (31 October 2004)

I went into "Saw" with hopes of a thriller/horror movie that would challenge my mind and my stomach. Although it succeeded fairly well at the latter, it completely failed in the former. After hearing several reviews lauding the performances by Danny Glover and Cary Elwes, I had also hoped to witness a finely acted movie. Elwes had the chance to shine -- spending most of the movie in a secluded room with only one other actor present (who, as silly as it seems, put in one of the better performances in the movie...and he was the screenwriter of the movie, not a professionally trained actor). What Elwes gives us is an over the top (not in the Oscar worthy way) performance that at times, caused the audience to laugh out loud. An actor such as himself should know better than to go overboard on the whole "slipping sanity cries and yells". Glover's character was not given the best lines, either. At one point he laughably dedicates catching the Jigsaw murderer on behalf of his fallen comrade...once again, rather over the top. This brings me to another point...what was the significance of Glover's character? And so we might be able to disregard Glover's performance as a fault of the script, but Elwes's performance was just plain terrible. A disturbingly thought out concept, "Saw" fails miserably in its presentation. If you want a horror/thought provoking movie that isn't so mainstream and "Hollywooded Up", I would suggest renting something along the lines of "Session 9". "Saw" 2 out of 5