Foster at her best in an average thriller

Rating: 4/10 (16 January 2006)

Saw; first the praise; this film is a bargain basement 'Seven'. After that I found little to cherish in this face-painted psycho-thriller, based around two men chained to pipes in a grim toilet with a dead man between them. The idea is they have to think their way out of the situation using only clues provided by hidden weirdo 'Jigsaw'; it's a kind of pervert's crystal Maze. One might wonder why these freaks who like to mess people up according to a psychotic evaluation of morality, don't just go to a 'make new friend's club', church or an adult video shop. This film also tries hard to be ground breaking on themes such as survival, love, psychological warfare and retribution but when you are BLATANTLY using white face paint and blue lipstick on one of your actors so they look ill with agony, the only provoking your doing is laughter. Indeed, at one point a character is so violently hurt, he goes white faced and you can see the pink bits the make up artist missed; very funny. This film is annoyingly complex too, so that there is a constant barrage of twists and turns that some might find delightful, others unoriginal. On top of that the mind-game playing character Jigsaw creates his persona using a clown headed paraplegic in a rusty wheelchair; you want to shout; 'no-ones interested clown man, we just want to get on with our selfish lives so go an kill yourself you interfering little loser'. Still on a high note, that's not to say that if this clown wheeled itself to the end of your bed you wouldn't crap a river, before kicking the hell out of it. So ten out of ten for creepy aesthetics but beyond that it is ultimately a very bankrupt man's Seven.