genre film with some style

Rating: 7/10 (21 January 2002)

I thought this movie was a pretty remarkable exercise in style and an incredibly controlled performance by Morgan Freeman. Most of it is kinda cliched  the retiring cop breaks-in a rookie (by-the-book vs. the loose cannon working on a hunch), the clever serial killer, the soulless city, the standard noir ending where the searcher realizes that he is what he's been searching for and so on. The art direction is wonderful, with a real attention to detail. The movie makes for riveting viewing the first time around. I find myself skipping chapters though when I try to watch it again.
To make the last act measure up to the first hour of the movie, I think the writing should have emphasized the idea that the wrath/envy set up was an example of John Doe improvising after the detectives found his apartment. The wrath/envy scene doesn't have nearly the convoluted menace of the Sloth or Gluttony scenes. It's a noir thriller and Gwen is unaccounted for - the end seemed pretty obvious to me compared to the craziness of "HELP ME" in fingerprints.