Taking Lives
Tags: mystery, gothic, murder, suspenseful, neo noir, violence, flashback, revenge

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with a young man (Paul Dano) who has run away from home. He looks meek and soft, a geek with thick glasses. He shares the bus trip with another male runaway who has jumped free from an army school called Matt Soulby (Justin Chatwin). The bus gets a flat tyre, so they buy a second-hand car from a garage man (Bill Two Rivers). That car gets a flat tyre as well. When Matt is changing the tyre, his companion pushes him onto an incoming car. Both Matt and the driver of the car die.Angelina Jolie plays an FBI profiler, Special Agent Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie), who is sent to Montreal to help in a murder investigation. Agent Scott's approach to profiling the serial killer is somewhat eccentric. She goes to a crime scene, lies down in the position the victim was found, and uncovers clues the police did not notice. She gets inside the head of the serial killer and comes up with a theory that the killer is assuming the lives and the identities of the people he kills.The mother of the serial killer, Mrs Archer (Gena Rowlands), sees her evil son, who was supposed to have been killed by a truck years earlier, on the ferry. She goes to the police and talks to Paquette (Olivier Martínez), but they do not let him reopen the case. Later, when the serial killer kills again, they have a witness who is an artist called James Costa (Ethan Hawke), who can draw his face. This was the clue they needed although Costa can't be too specific about the details. The police finally contact his mother and collect more information about him. The murderer was the non-preferred younger sibling of a pair of twins. Illeana insists. The police are protecting Mrs Asher, but she doesn't allow them to register her home. Illeana enters the home, thinking that she'll get off easier of the charges as she is an outsider who may not know the rules which are applied in Canada. There, she goes up to the penthouse and looks to a shabby place full of old-fashioned toys, a teddy-bear which has been hanged... Suddenly, she is attacked by somebody who appears from under the dirty mattress and runs away.Agent Scott gets involved romantically with Costa, clouding her judgment, so she wants off the case. However, the Canadian police think that she is their best assest, so they keep her on the case. They think that the killer may be one big potential buyer of Costa, so he'll be used as bait. Costa goes to the toilets after having received a note, but the police tell him to forget about everything - although there is a suspense moment when the police cannot hear Costa and he goes to the bathroom on his own.The investigation goes on, and Costa finally confronts his evil twin: Hart (Kiefer Sutherland). In the ensuing fight, Costa is hurt, but Hart jumps from the window and leaves in his flashy car. The police run after them, and Hart's car burns to ashes to Hart inside. Costa is hurt but alive. That night, he and Illeana make love.Mrs Asher has to identify her dead son. She gets shocked and leaves without saying anything after looking into the corpse's eyes. The police laugh at her. Illeana goes after her because she smells something fishy.Mrs Asher has already gone into the lift. Costa is inside: he is the evil twin. His mother says that she's not afraid of him. When Illeana arrives, Mrs Asher has been killed and lies in a pool of blood.Costa has left to the underground. He starts talking to a man, and he takes his life, as usual. Leclair (Tchéky Karyo), the man in charge, is angry with Illeana because Costa has run away.Time goes on. Illeana goes back to the USA and she is spelled from the FBI. She has become white trash, living on a derelict wooden house somewhere in the countryside. She is pregnant.One day, Costa arrives with a physical appearance somehow different. She wants to kill her because she is pregnant of his babies, male twins. There is a fight: he has taken away all the loaded guns Illeana had hidden away all over her home.James takes a pair of scissors and he thrusts them into Illeana's womb. She takes the scissors and thrusts them into James Costa's heart. While he is giving his last breath, Illeana shows him how she has tricked him. She is not pregnant at all: she has carried a fake pregnancy bag on her belly under her clothes. James Costa dies.Illeana phones Leclair. He says that he's glad to hear from her, as he was beginning to feel worried about her. Leclair will go immediately to Illeana's home to save her some of the trouble with the questioning and paperwork.

Review: The plot has a lot of elements, but we principally follow FBI agent Illeana Scott as she travels to Montreal in order to help their police force with a case that involves a serial killer who, not content to simply murder his victims, takes their identity and lives their lives for a period before moving onto his next victim.The cinematography is dark and glossy, and sleazy settings mean that it's always a lot like Fincher's earlier flick.
If I had to write a one sentence review for Taking Lives, it would be, "If you have seen a ridiculous amount of thriller movies and have seen all the twists and turns before, then this movie is very predictable, if you haven't, it is worth a look and you may even be surprised." For those that want more, please read on.I believe the casting for this movie was as close to perfect as they were going to get.
He was probably in and out in 2 days of filming.And finally, Ethan Hawke did a fine job for his role, but I think they could have made a better choice for this character.As I said earlier, those of us who see many of these types of movies will probably see most of the twists before they happen.
It's also pretty obvious who the killer is early on,so the film's plot has to take some very silly twists and turns to try to hide this.Nevertheless,there is much that is good,perhaps it was realised that the script was mediocre and everybody tried hard to try to overcome this.
Despite my love of Angelina Jolie, I must say that Taking Lives wasted a lot of good opportunity.Given that they invented an entirely new lead character, we can't really compare this to the book, so let's look at it as a movie of it's own right.Jolie plays Illeana Scott, a somewhat strange FBI agent who is called up to Canada to investigate the grisly murders of several young men, all whom have had their identities stolen by the killer.
New to the scene is witness James Costa, Ethan Hawke, who soon grows to have an attachment to Scott.At turns formulaic and down right rip off (the credits are far too similar to be called a homage to SE7EN), Taking Lives is a very enjoyable piece of work.Beautifully shot, the film wallows in its moods.
It knows that it can be creepy, but it wears it out on its sleeves.Angelina is on top form as Scott, although its a shame that the movie does stoop to the need for quick-sex-scene-with-unnecessary-titty-shot.Ethan Hawke is bearable as Costa, although he and Jolie have very little chemistry.Other players, Olivier Martinez, Gena Rowlands, Tcheky Karyo and Jean Hughes-Angalade are also quite good.The film does have its highs: excellent cinematography, creepy sinister mood, two fantastic adrenaline-jump moments that I never saw coming.
Overall despite it's flaws Taking Lives is an okay thriller with a little suspense, action, and solid performances by the cast who make this movie worth watching at least once but after it's over you can't help but feel a little disappointed..
Gena Rowlands and Keefer Sutherland are also on hand to lend their talents, but since their roles are fairly miniscule, they don't have much of a chance to display their wares as actors.Although watchable, "Taking Lives" feels like a weak-spined, half-hearted effort in an already played-out genre.
Too many of these "keep you guessing" thrillers disappoint you in the end, this one doesn't.Angelina Jolie is very solid in this role, redeeming her in my eyes after her stints in the horrible Lara Croft films.
Angeline Jolie looks as good as I've ever seen her, facially and figure-wise.The film loses marks for an easy-to-solve story, some credibility gaps especially later in the movie and too small a part for Keifer Sutherland to get third billing.
Angelina Jolie as a special agent with the F.B.I. investigating serial murderer case in Eastern Canada, involving a killer who takes on the identities of each of his victims, usually drifters he befriends in bus stations and train stops.
And so, an average movie-goer pays 6 bucks to watch a film compiled from SHADOW OF A DOUBT, SEVEN, ORDINARY PEOPLE, DRESSED TO KILL, PSYCHO, THE BONE COLLECTOR, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, ROSEMARY'S BABY, JAGGED EDGE, FATAL ATTRACTION, MURDER BY NUMBERS, KISS THE GIRLS, TWISTED (I haven't seen it but no matter), ALONG CAME A SPIDER, almost every film by Ridley and Tony Scott, COPYCAT(!), CAPE FEAR, and AN EYE FOR AN EYE.
These cat-and-mouse thrillers always seem to work, and Taking Lives should not disappoint in that respect.The supporting cast act out their roles coherently too although Ethan Hawke was perhaps a little too exaggerating in his part.
But special praise should go to Olivier Martinez; a particularly strong and believable performance from the Frenchman.Taking Lives is a nail-biting thriller with an interesting storyline that should keep most film-goers entertained.
The soon to be new Mrs.Jolie-Pitt done a good job of playing a clairvoyant type cop though I felt Jhonny Depps uncanny ability in From Hell was much better , the plot was an interesting idea that attracted me to the film in the first place but it was a shame that it was not really executed to the the point where this could of been such a great movie .
In general Taking Lives is Just your average cop vs Pshyco killer movie which fails to raise any expectations again of the thriller genre but still is worth a check out if you have nothing better to do in your spare time so I gave it a weak 7 out of 10 ..
Thriller about an FBI agent Illena (Angelina Jolie) in France, tracking a serial killer who "takes lives"--he kills people and assumes their identities.
How does he get a driver's license, or a bank account?In the first of his murders, when he shoves an acquaintance in front of a truck on a smooth roadway, why does the vehicle fly into the air and somersault to destruction?Why does the killer's mother have photos of her son only as a child but not as a teenager?Why does somebody you owe money to lurk about in the shadows but not meet you face to face until the plot requires it?Why does a kidnap victim with a gun at his head drive at high speed through a city instead of switching off the ignition?Why does a cop who is supposed to be guarding a potential victim wait out in the street next to a taxi?And finally, why does Angelina Jolie get into the sack with sexless Ethan Hawke when Olivier Martinez is on hand?The good thing about DVD's, of course, is that one can watch the last third of the film at 1.5 speed, with on screen subtitles, to the final contrived and unbelievable climax.Better still, give up movies and read a book..
This is a retarded "Seven," if you get my drift.This movie is bad.Rather than focus on an interesting idea (i.e., a serial killer that takes the identity of others), this film chooses to be about Angelina Jolie looking sexy and thus looses any sort of appeal/suspense value that it might have.
Kiefer did a great job in the movie as well,, Ethan Hawke's performance was very good I thought,, Angela Jolie was a great as ever,, and frankly never looked better.
Angelina Jolie stars as a FBI agent investigating the case of a serial killer who is stealing various identities as he grows older.The film starts off very well, convincing performances all around keep us glued from the first minute.
Suffice it to say that you're better off spending the 103 minutes organizing your sock drawer than watching this silly wanna-be "thriller." How sad to see a film squander talented folks like Gena Rowlands and Kiefer Sutherland in roles that might as well be cameo appearances.
This film looked quite interesting in the previews and really grabbed my attention with a solid cast, including Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, and Kiefer Sutherland.
I suppose we can do a large analysis about the modern society thinking that the most common villains from movies and television are:the millionaire bad guy,the terrorist or the serial killer.But,also,we can say these villains exist because of the absence of imagination in Hollywood and it shows they're afraid of innovating.They rather to repeat things which worked very well in the past but putting something new.But very little spectators are victim of that.The film Taking lives takes the same formula which made the film Seven so popular:a genius killer is murdering people with a characteristic idea.An intelligent cop must catch him and the opponents are in a fight of intelligence and only some will survive.In the case of Taking lives,the killer steals the identity of the victims;and the cop is a great agent from the FBI,who goes to Canada with the porpoise of helping the local police.Oh,I forgot the false,forced and totally unnecessary romance between a witness of a murder and the agent.In this case,the woman does not only fight for justice;she also starts worrying about her lover.Something curious:the enormous quantity of movies which copied The silence of the lambs and Seven are always worried in showing ''unexpected'' endings,while that two other movies did not put much importance on the killer's identity;they were more focused on the persecution and the characters' personalities.If something should Taking lives have copied,it should have been the interaction between cop and killer,and not to try to create suspense with the villain's identity that any person will guess it from the first half hour of the movie.The cast has talent but,here,they cannot do anything;Angelina Jolie,Ethan Hawke,Kiefer Sutherland and Tchéky Karyo have made great works on other movies and it's a shame that director D.J.Caruso put that brilliant cast on an absurd,tedious and predictable story.The cinematography is also copied from Seven(from the initial credits)but,at least,it makes that the scenarios have life.Sadly,with the story it did not happen that.Taking lives stole 103 minutes of my life using a narrative formula which is not new from a lot of time.I think that it's worse a mediocre movie because it does not show talent than a bad movie and Taking lives falls on the first style.This is another bad copy..
It almost put me to sleep - I was fighting off tiredness in case of some actual plot development, but I was sadly disappointed.The movie is about a detective (Jolie) who has to solve a murder mystery in Canada, where the killer assumes his victim's identity after every murder.Firstly, the character development.
Nothing about this movie was top notch or anything that really stood out, like the acting was all pretty mediocre.But it kept me entertained, so it can't be too bad, it will pass the time pretty easily.I saw the unrated version, I don't know what's in the unrated version that's not in the other one, but there's this pretty twisted sex scene with Angelina Jolie.
Keifer Sutherland makes a fraction of a cameo appearance in a scene which opens up a little bit of a plot hole.If you like an FBI/Cop serial killer drama you will probably like this one, but there are better ones out there so I wouldn't be rushing to see it.Rating *1/2.
Unpretentious confidence and slowly built trust both completely dismantled in a time frame as short as the closing of an elevator door-exactly the shattering, ephemeral moment Angelina Jolie experiences in director D.J. Caruso's `Taking Lives.'With a scene revealing the beginning of the main antagonist's killing habits, the tone is set before the credits roll.
Notions of who the murderer really is and who is fooling who scramble around the story as Caruso leads us through shootouts, `Where's Waldo' running scenes, and car chase rides.Whereas usual thrillers try to integrate actions scenes only to result in plot killers, `Taking Lives' succeeds in balancing the brawns and the brains of the movie.
Taking Lives is a very good thrilling film that stars Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland, Gena Rowlands, Olivier Martinez, and Tchéky Karyo!
In this weak and very disappointing "supernatural" thriller, ravishing beauty Angelina Jolie pretty much repeats the role she played in "The Bone Collector", even though she clearly wanted this film to be more successful and maybe even able to compete with the real big boys like "Seven" and "Silence of the Lambs".
The special FBI agent Illeana Scott (Angeline Jolie) is called by the Montreal police force to help in the investigation of a serial killer, who destroys the faces and takes the hands off his victims.
"Taking Lives" is a very reasonable thriller, having many plot points, but being predictable with no innovations, and very similar to "Seven", "The Silence of the Lambs", "The Bone Collector", "Resurrection" and other "tales" of serial killers.
Angelina Jolie hardly seems credible as the "married to the job" FBI investigator brought on board by Canadian cops trying to track down a serial killer who mutilated his victims and then takes over their lives until his next attack.
Taking Lives tries its hardest to become as good as those, but it doesn't.Even though I didn't like this movie very much, my all time favorite actress Angelina Jolie is in it.
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsFBI profiler Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie) is summoned to Montreal to assist in the investigation of a serial killer who murders his victims,then assumes their identities.Taking Lives is just what the world was crying out for:another serial killer thriller.Hardly the most original and intriguing concept in the world,but perhaps one to provide serviceable entertainment nonetheless.Sadly,even in this department,it falls flat on it's face.Jolie appears uneasy and uncertain with her role and you can see the trite direction her relationship with fellow detective Olivier Martinez is going in from the off.Ethan Hawke's character is introduced far too quickly,not giving him chance to develop properly and become an integral part of the plot,although it's a wonder why he wasn't second billed on the poster as opposed to Martinez,who occupies so little screen-time it's really a wonder.The preposterousness of the plot,in terms of both story and devices,is another major bummer.It constantly tries to throw little original angles into the proceedings in a vein attempt to sway us from seeing how predictable it all really is.By the time the end rolls by,you've seen all the possible outcomes of the plot already in your mind,so nothing is a surprise,except how one of the fastest rising leading ladies could headbill a project in which she could project herself so blandly in something that is ultimately so bland.**.
The story had potential, but the mediocre acting (even Ethan Hawkee could not help Angelina Jolie's less than poor performance), blatant errors and inconsistencies make watching this movie a truly punishing experience.
The story had potential, but the mediocre acting (even Ethan Hawkee could not help Angelina Jolie's less than poor performance), blatant errors and inconsistencies make watching this movie a truly punishing experience.
We get some very brief overview shots suggesting how he maybe achieves this from a technical point of view, but when the expected twist at the end outstays its welcome in a very extended coda involving Jolie saving the day by 'dazzling insight' into the killer's mind that soon looks too much like a writer's fantasy: it is then that we start asking ourselves if the main plot was actually believable.
When will we ever again see a movie featuring a crazy killer who IS what he seems; who's guilty and we all know it and it's just a matter of how good he is at staying one step ahead of bright cops?A solid cast (Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Tkechy Karyo, and brief appearances by Kiefer Sutherland and Gena Rowlands) is wasted by D.J. Caruso's flaccid direction and Jon Bokenkamp's dog-eared screenplay.
Just ask some sucker who wasted his money (I'm sure as hell glad I didn't) on this average piece of dreck what happened at the end.No chances were taken, nothing sets this film apart from any other serial killer movie ever.
Director tried his best but film lacks intensity , darkness , thrill ..Although brilliant performance by Angelina Jolie maintained some gripping pace , thrill till end ..She is looking too gorgeous in this movie ....Nice effort but could have been beter ...
An FBI profiler is called in by French Canadian police to catch a serial killer who takes on the identity of each new victim.What a great cast, including a more mainstream role for Gena Rowlands, who steals every scene she is in.
Interesting but very predictable film regarding a serial killer, who takes the identities of his victims, since he wants to keep forgetting his own real-life.Angelina Jolie is the cop in hot pursuit and Ethan Hawke, may very well be the art dealer who witnessed one of the beatings.Kiefer Sutherland is in a brief role as the supposed killer.
I thought it would be somthing like Se7en; a good idea for a thriller.It was with some dismay that after 10 minutes of watching this film, i realised that the main focus of this movie was Angelina Jolie and the development of her character throughout.
DePalma's brand of obsessiveness appears to have afflicted director D.J. Caruso with his sophomore effort, the new suspense thriller, Taking Lives, starring Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke and Kiefer Sutherland.
At the end of the movie, not to give away the ending, Angelina Jolie's character `takes a life' in order to get revenge on the killer.
What I liked about this movie was its cast, Jolie, Hawke, Martinez & Sutherland and I thought they were all almost written by the book characters for a serial killer thriller but I thought they were really well done which gives me a gut feeling to watch the movie.