Elaine Stritch as her boozy grandmother bites into a tart couple of scenes. But the stars' chemistry is flat, and Charlotte's medical condition sounds like a writer's last resort. This vile thriller about a sadomasochistic serial killer isn't appropriate for anyone under 17. The killer kidnaps, tortures and drowns young women in a glass cell programmed to fill with water, and gets sexual pleasure from watching videos of their torment. There is considerable nudity, naked corpses, strongly implied verbal and physical child abuse and the drowning of a child in a fantasy baptism.
Characters use pot, cigarettes and profanity.
Vince Vaughn plays the FBI agent whose team finds the killer. Jennifer Lopez plays a lip-glossy psychologist who as part of a research project is sedated and, through chemical and electrical means, enters the subconscious of a comatose patient. The FBI asks her to get into the killer's mind. It's not prime real estate in there. The film's surreal images are dazzling, but director Tarsem Singh's visual gifts are wasted in such a grotesque exploitation.