Not exactly "Seven", but damned close

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2004)

While this is a movie that depends very heavily on mystery and concealment, sometimes to the aggravation and annoyance the viewer, there is substance behind all the grisly gimmicks and despairing scenes: this is what one would call an "existential" film, and not in the pretentious sense.
I can fully understand the criticisms of the film. The "flashbacks" that the acidic and whiny surgeon have are indeed a little bit of a cop out, as you sort of come into the movie expecting a Hitchcockian kind of experiment, a film made in one room in the tradition of "Rope". If that was the idea that turned you on to this movie, it might not live up to your expectations, as most of the important parts are outside of the bathroom in which the two men are imprisoned.
Right from the beginning we know none of this can end well. The two leading men are irritating, amoral, and unsympathetic characters to say the least. The surgeon is a workaholic and solicitor of prostitutes, and Adam, the young photographer, is a burn out moron in the vein of early Keanu Reeves. It's hard to care about either of the characters at all, but when wife and children come into play, we do.
You may think that you have the film when it is halfway through, but you don't, so stick with it. The ending of this movie is one of the only genuine, "I'd have no idea until I saw it" shockers I've seen in years. In fact, the *ending* (by no means the entire movie) of this one probably transcends "Se7en" in terms of the level of sheer surprise it generates.
There are seriously unforgettable scenes. Each one with "the puppet", for example, will not leave your mind for quite sometime. There's something so inarticulately horrific about it; if your friend showed up at an intense Halloween party with it on it would not be cool. The killer is trying to teach his victims a lesson which is in many ways deeper than John Doe's rather conventional, Biblically inspired message. He tries to get a drug addict to feel some value for her body by putting a metallic, explosive "Man In the Iron Mask" type thing on her face and promising her that if she doesn't get the key in five minutes her head will be blown apart by it. The way that she obtains the key ain't for the squeamish.
The only huge flaw this movie really has (aside from some laughable dialogue between Adam and the surgeon) is that we never really get to know the killer, who despite being a psychopathic monster seems to have some real lessons to teach. It would have been interesting to hear him comment on his own crimes in his own voice, not the baritone, digitially altered, ominous scratch which narrates it's own atrocities.
Flaws aside, this is a gut wrenching film, almost flawlessly blending horrendous gore and morality. Recommended.