Chilling tale let down by OTT performances

Rating: 6/10 (18 January 2005)

Two men wake up in a room chained to pipes with a body on the floor in a pool of blood, and no recollection of how they got there. They soon find a tape instructing one of the men, Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes) to kill the other (Leigh Whannell) within 6 hours, or his wife and daughter will be murdered. Dr. Gordon quickly realizes that they have become the latest victims of a serial killer known as "The Jigsaw", whose trademark is to put his victims in situations where they kill themselves, or each other. Neither of the men can reach the gun in the middle of the room, all they have been equipped with are saws too flimsy to cut through their chains, but strong enough to cut through flesh and bone...
With an intriguing central premise, 'Saw' proves what can be achieved with a small budget and a big idea. Much like a cross between 'Se7en' and 'Cube', flashback is used to show us the fate of earlier victims, while most of the action is confined to the dark underground room where the men are being held (ala 'Cube') providing a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere.
The earlier part of the film is where 'Saw' works best, with the initial introduction to the serial killer and his victims both chilling and gripping, while the predicaments faced by both men heightens the sense of desperation as they work against the clock. Paranoia and suspicion are inevitably drawn in to the equation and through these plot convolution's we begin to 'piece' together the mystery of "The Jigsaw".
While hitherto displaying what can be achieved with a minimal budget, one area 'Saw' trips up is in it's casting. Instead of plumping primarily for unknown actors, the cast is comprised of z-list actors Cary Elwes, Monica Potter and Danny Glover. And z-list they will remain. Porbably the films greatest splurge is it's greatest flaw. Potter is just fine as the suffering wife, but this role could've been pulled off by anyone with breasts and a good pair of lungs. Glover hams it up as the cliché ridden obsessive cop while Elwes, at times cringe-inducing, overacts to the point of melodrama, though not helped by a script hampered with dire exchanges and misplaced dialogue. The central plot work well enough, and if the film had been perhaps somewhat improvised with an unknown cast (as in 'The Blair Witch Project) it could've brought a heightened sense of realism from which the film certainly would've benefited. The set pieces (with creepy masks and terrifying weapons aplenty) and premise are terrifying enough on their own, it's a shame we're drawn out of this by hammy acting and plot holes that don't stand up to repeat viewings.
6/10