Live or die. Make your choice

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2007)

Jigsaw John(Tobin Bell)and his protégé Amanda(Shawnee Smith)are up to their old tricks, but in this third film(and my favorite of the series)there are some surprises I didn't see coming. On "trial" is Jeff(Angus Macfadyen, who is blessed with a face and talent that can express all sorts of emotion), an emotionally unstable man, full of booze, wrath & pain, consumingly overwhelmed by the loss of his son in a car crash. The driver responsible was released shortly after thanks to a hasty trial with pretty much a slap on the wrist that might change a many of us who might have this same type of bitterness and rage if it happened to us(or, at least I put myself in his shoes). The other important character in Jigsaw and Amanda's new game is a female doctor named Lynn(Bahar Soomekh, another really great choice for the film..this film is a success in my eyes because the casting excels)who might be able to prolong his life among other things.
Jeff must complete a series of games in less than two hours or face being shut inside the building. Each game consists of those certain people who played intricate roles in or around his son's demise(the woman who, instead of assisting Jeff as he held his dying son, drove off;the judge who gave the murderer a slap on the wrist;the killer himself). Jeff has their lives in his hands. He can forgive or let them perish in Jigsaw and Amanda's crafted killing apparatuses. Meanwhile, Lynn has a metal collar, with chambered bullets, that is linked to Jigsaw's heart-rate. Her duty is to not let him die or else the bullets will fire right into her face. Also important is Amanda's role(what she does know and doesn't know..Jigsaw has prepared this whole game for a major purpose to be determined)in the grand scheme of things. She will determine the outcome just as much as Jeff..and not even know it! The film does lots of things this go-around, delving into how Amanda formed her partnership with Jigsaw, the loose ends untied from the second film regarding Eric(Donnie Wahlberg)will be finalized, and we actually see how Jigsaw prepared the test of the two male characters in the first film. These "flashbacks" regarding Amanda are crucial to the development of the film and it's climax. Like the previous two films, this one works off of some coincidences provided by a screenplay that needs certain characters to die(or suffer)at the right moment before they can be saved, or a certain character saved who just happens to be in a specific place to be shot by a shotgun. I'm not convinced anyone could put together such elaborately designed games without something going awry, but this like the other two is orchestrated by a screenplay writer with devious intentions for his created characters. We see that Amanda has created games that give those tested no way to survive which is not Jigsaw's method. This film is also the most grisly and gruesome of the three showing one unfortunate victim(caught in Jigsaw's favorite contraption, "The Twister") having his arms, legs, and head completely twisted around as bones snap out of the skin like broken wood. The ultimate goal of Jigsaw is choices and forgiveness. Can Jeff make the right choice and forgive those who have caused him so much agony? There are many who might be able to pick this apart with a fined tooth comb, but I just enjoyed it despite acknowledging that no one is that skillful enough to get away with what the film's death-geniuses do.