Jennifer Eight

Plot synopsis:
Former Los Angeles policeman John Berlin is teetering toward burnout after the collapse of his marriage. At the invitation of an old friend and colleague, Freddy Ross, Berlin heads to rural northern California, for a job with the Eureka police force. Instead, Berlin prickles his new colleagues, especially John Taylor, who was passed over for promotion in order to make room for Berlin.
After finding a woman's severed hand in a garbage bag at the local dump, Berlin reopens the case of an unidentified murdered girl, nicknamed "Jennifer", which went unsolved despite a full-time six-month effort by the department. Berlin notes an unusually large number of scars on the hand as well as wear on the finger-tips which he realizes came from reading Braille, determining that the girl is blind. He begins to believe the cases are related. Berlin does his best to convince Freddy and his fellow officers of his suspicions, but Taylor, and police chief Citrine, refuse to believe that the hand found at the dump is in any way connected to the other cases.
After consulting his former colleagues in L.A., Berlin discovers that in the previous four years, six women, most of them blind, have either been found dead or are still missing, all within a 300-mile radius of San Diego. He becomes convinced that "Jennifer" was the 7th victim and the girl whose hand was found at the dump is "Jennifer 8", or victim #8. While investigating the links between the dead and missing blind girls, he meets blind music student Helena Robertson, determining that her roommate Amber was the eighth victim. Berlin becomes obsessed with the case, despite an almost complete lack of hard evidence, and becomes romantically involved with Helena, who resembles his ex-wife.
After an attack on Helena, Ross accompanies Berlin on a stakeout at the institute where Helena lives in a dorm, after leaving Helena with Ross' wife Margie. When they see a flashlight shining on the same floor as Helena's apartment, Berlin investigates and is knocked unconscious by the killer, who then shoots and kills Ross with Berlin's .32 pistol. A grueling interrogation of Berlin by FBI special agent St. Anne ensues. St. Anne makes clear to Berlin that he figures him for Ross's murderer, but also inadvertently reveals information which clues Berlin to the identity of the true killer. Berlin tells St. Anne and Citrine who he believes the killer to be, but his deductions are met with disbelief. Berlin is arrested for Ross's murder, but is bailed out by Margie, who believes that Berlin is not the killer.
Upon making bail Berlin returns to Margie's house only to learn that Margie has taken Helena back to the institute. Fearing that Helena and Margie are in danger, Berlin rushes to the institute, but fails to arrive ahead of the killer, who breaks in and chases a woman he believes to be Helena through the dorm. Finally catching up to her, the killer is shocked to discover that the woman he'd been pursuing is actually Margie, who shoots him dead, avenging her husband and closing the case.

Tags: murder

Review:
It's absolutely entertaining, with great performances from pretty much everybody, but especially Andy Garcia and Lance Henrikson.It plays out like a good mystery/thriller should: Frustrating twists and turns, brooding atmosphere and music, and layer after layer of clues that you know are building to a big time climax.
Like any great film actor there is little time to develop a character so casting must be spot on.
Such amazing acting from such incredibly diverse actors: Andy Garcia is just perfect as the police sergeant (and incredibly sexy in this role); Uma Thurman plays a blind musician very convincingly and some scenes are truly terrifying; John Malkovich has a stern, unrelenting style that is seemingly perfect for him in this role (St. Anne).
This is easily one of the most underrated Hollywood films of the nineties - it's got a compelling script, beautiful performances (particularly from Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, and John Malkovitch in a short but unforgettable cameo.), some of the best cinematography ever set on film (director of photography Conrad Hall later went on to shoot 'American Beauty'.), and one of the greatest scores ever written by underrated composer Christopher Young.
I cannot and will not for the life of me comprehend why people do not like provoking and complex movies, (ya know, WHERE YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO THINK).Jennifer 8, is a great movie, it is daring, smart, witty, scary and....a bit on the real side.
Uma Thurman is remarkable as the blind Helena, and one would be hard pressed to find fault with her very realistic performance as the would-be next victim for the serial killer.
It stars Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, John Malkovich, Lance Henriksen, Kathy Baker and Graham Beckel.
The rushed ending is particularly galling, after asking the audience to stay with the pic for two hours, it's not unreasonable to expect a good long and dramatic finale, sadly that's not the case.Fans of neo-noir type visuals have some interest here, as does anyone who likes the type of serial killer movies that dominated the late 80s and early 90s before Fincher's Seven raised the bar.
Freddy Ross, sergeant on scene (Lance Henriksen in a rambunctious, really underrated performance) calls in his old friend, big city Detective John Berlin (a haggard Andy Garcia), to help investigate.
this movie has great stars( Thurman, Garcia, henriksen & a great cameo by malkovich( he is so good that i wanted to put my hand thru my flatscreen & just choke him).
With Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman and John Malkovich all playing intriguing characters, this should have been better than it was.
"Jennifer 8" is a passable thriller with an exceptional cast and a relatively cohesive story, but much like the "gialli" of Dario Argento, it's a film that doesn't have the good sense to quit while it's ahead, and expects to tie things up with a reveal that is just so much hastily-assembled pop-psychology cliché.
Set in a pervasively dreary New England state, Andy Garcia plays a LA cop who's transferred in order to be under the command of mentor Lance Henriksen, and discovers a bloodied brassiere and a severed hand at the scene of an apparent suicide; thus is unearthed a casefile on a string of murders targeting blind women as a masked assailant goes back into action, stalking attractive music teacher Uma Thurman (who gives a performance better than the material deserves).
While Andy Garcia's sometimes-frantic line readings and bug-eyed expressions make him a dubious choice for the lead, he plays well off his more seasoned costars, particularly Henriksen (whose profane, hard-boiled zingers remind us why he is one of cinema's best-kept character-actor secrets); additionally, John Malkovich shows up late in the game for a brilliantly-performed interrogation scene that, while seemingly extraneous to the ongoing plot, is nevertheless worth watching for the man's undeniable chops (like Charles Bronson, he basically plays the same character in each film--but does it quite well).
Enjoyed the great acting of Uma Thurman,(Helena Robertson),"Prime",'05, who plays a blind gal who has some connection to another young girl who disappeared and is being investigated by a detective.
This detective is played by Andy Garcia,(Sgt. John Berlin),"The Lost City",'05, who has just transferred from Los Angeles to a small town in Northern California and his first assignment leads him to a garbage dump and all its smells in the pouring rain.
Beautifully directed, dark thriller with twists and turns as an obsessed detective tracks a dead-end serial killer case with clues that point to him as he gets closer to the killer.Andy Garcia smolders with gravitas and intensity in a way he has had trouble matching ever since.
classic scene in a rainy dump in the beginning, where he uncovers a severed hand.John Malcovich nearly steals the film in a series of interrogations as a smarmy investigator trying to pin the murders on Garcia, and Lance Henrikson puts in some very solid character work.Uma Thurman looks great and the film has a surprise ending that satisfies..
This is a thriller with a good concept, good acting, good photography and good intentions all around, but which is confused and disjointed in execution.Garcia stars as John Berlin, an L.A. forensic detective who has moved to a small California town at the behest of a friend of his on the force there.
The known victim is theorized to be blind, which leads to a romance with a blind girl - believed to be a witness - at a nearby school for the blind.Despite a basically intriguing story there were too many quantum leaps and plot holes in this movie where I found myself wondering, 'how the hell did we wind up here?' or 'how did we find this out?' I found it confusing and disjointed, despite the good acting, etc.
I also liked that the film kinda gives you 'the clues' into possible murderers but in the end you are surprised by who actually is.And that is maybe my only complaint.
At times, this movie is mesmerizing and mysterious, a really good story about a serial killer who targets blind women.
While it does follow the detective-suspects-pattern-in-murders-and-has-to-protect-someone formula, Andy Garcia's and Uma Thurman's performances give the movie its strength.
Andy Garcia, Lance Henrikson, Uma Thurman, and John Malkovich all give extraordinary performances in a novel script that involves intriguing and very deep characters.
Behind the murders involved and the tense atmosphere, the movie also tells a romantic love story of a blind woman and a cop returning from the badlands.
After moving from the big city to a smaller town, forensic detective, Sgt. John Berlin(Andy Garcia) finds himself immediately thrown into an important case when a human hand is found at a local rubbish tip.
"Jennifer 8" is a decade old noirish whodunit which tells of a burned out L.A. detective (Garcia) who moves to a small town force where he finds himself obsessed with a serial killer case and in love with a potential victim.
A good old fashioned suspense-mystery, "J8" is a solid C+ watch which features good cast performances, above average cinematography, and enough plot twists, clue discovery, action, and somber romance to keep most viewers interested all the way through a 2+ hour run to a surprise conclusion.
Bruce Robinson's film is very well made; it has a good cast and they all perform well, but that really counts for nothing when the story is not interesting enough to keep the audience interested for the overlong two hour running time.
Uma Thurman doesn't really get to do much other than play the token 'victim' blind girl, and John Malkovich steals the show once he gets on screen.
Midway through the murky thriller "Jennifer 8," a bit of much needed life is injected into the proceedings when John Malkovich, bald, somewhat effeminate, and eerily charismatic, turns up to interrogate detective Andy Garcia, stringy haired, hyper, and about as charismatic as your local grocer.
Nothing of interest occurs until he appears, and little of interest occurs after he's gone.In addition to Malkovich, there's Uma Thurman as a blind woman who has "witnessed" a murder, Kevin Conway as a gruff detective, and a lot of indecipherable dialogue, as well as cinematography that attempts to be moodily noirish.
The thing that stands out in my mind in this film (sadly) is the introduction, where John Berlin (Andy Garcia) is driving into town.
In retrospect, this film is probably more true to life in showing an unsuspecting individual as capable of murder simply because they became a little wacko over time or maybe were born looney toons.John Malkovich does a stupendous job in his interrogation of Garcia!
Jennifer Eight is 2 hours and 7 minutes too long.The plot is boring,way too talky and confusing.I saw this in the movies and at one point i actually closed my eyes thinking that i could kill some of the time by sleeping some of it away.In fact towards the last 20 minutes or so i got a little paranoid and thought this film was never going to end.To make matters worse they added a little love story to it and you know whenever they do that it ruins the interest of the film because you have to sit through all that mushy crap.John malkovich also got on my nerves with his long talky scene.When the movie finally ended and a disappointing ending might i add,I walked out of the theater feeling as if i just been parolled from prison.And ladies,don,t ever let your boyfriend rent this movie for the 2 of you to watch.I gaurantee you will end off the evening slapping his ears off..
Police detective John Berlin (Andy Garcia) moves from L.A. to the small town of Eureka.
Only Berlin believes that there is a serial killer.This is a rather slow murder mystery thriller.
Andy Garcia plays cop John Berlin, on the track of said murderer, despite the belief of other cops that there is no serial killer involved.In the first ten minutes the visuals are truly ugly, as Berlin plows through a big garbage dump in adverse weather looking for clues.
Andy Garcia and Uma Thurman make a convincing couple, their romantic subplot might just be more interesting than what the movie is actually about.
Law Enforcement seems to be made important as a way of life however the way of life that is preserved is what provides the inability of the film to take a serious look at one of its own in Detective Taylor.The need to put one and one together for some reason never is developed beyond Detective Berlins dogged pursuit of an at large Killer.The film has a real reservation about this dangerous if you will predator with revelations at a later point suggesting that Detective Taylor may very well have obstructed justice or at the very least damaged the ability of the department to protect a witness.That scene was useful because as the audience participates in a second guess as to Taylors motive, Det.Berlin was perhaps close enough but did not know quite what was necessary to question Taylor with what I would of frightened Taylor with.Taylors mal-intent was correctly suggested by Det.Berlin in the interrogation but Detective Berlin needed help and help was only coming from sources other than rather than from the respective police department.It certainly did seem that there was more important things to do with one of those things being at the very least not providing the kind of care that the truth requires.Detective Berlin was being dealt with improperly because some suggested,perhaps even Taylor that we have already been over all this and wished ultimately to remove the search entirely.When the FBI agent reveals to Berlin that they found this capsule in his car,I felt what a smart point!I think Berlin thought so too!That was excellent.Berlin should of thought that even further when he had the scene with Taylor over the witness tampering because the interrogation room yielded that Taylor again was involved in obstruction.This attempt was of a willed calculation and it is part and parcel what this film looks like from time to time.That in fact there is a willed attempt to circumvent the truth for another way(commonly referred to as a mis-direction).The inability to properly prosecute the grounds keeper for such conduct was evidence that someone else was being either willfully ignored or deliberately denied and further denied what, Denied a honest position.The Robertson girl was indeed ignored beyond belief as I no more believed the Principal when he suggested that he did not know any of the people who attended the school than,I believed the grounds keeper did not know more than merely committing that kind of salacious crime.This indeed is evidenced of having power over another and there being a willful attempt to deny ones right as a result.There is a most certain shared perhaps even complicity is a better word in almost anything that Detective Berlin attempts to establish.The initial interview at the boarding school suggests that Det.Berlins buddy was unfair and there did not seem to be a point where to start.The relationship between Det.Berlin and Helena Robertson was perhaps inevitable though as truth would have it things were just getting started.This film does not believe and as such we are asked to consider what does this film not believe,?
In the first, Uma Thurman, who has been blind since childhood and sequestered in a bleak institution is taken to a Christmas party by Garcia, the detective investigating serial murders, in one of which cases she is a witness.
"Jennifer Eight" is an absorbing crime thriller about a burned out homicide detective who, whilst trying to get his life back on track, uncovers information which suggests that there's a serial killer on the loose who specialises in killing and dismembering blind women.Police Sergeant John Berlin (Andy Garcia) transfers from the LAPD to the small rural town of Eureka in the hope of finding a quieter and less stressful way of life.
Matters become more complicated however, as he falls in love with Helena Robertson (Uma Thurman) and soon recognises that she could be the serial killer's next victim.Berlin's senior officers aren't convinced by his findings and are also dubious about the value of a blind witness.
Berlin eventually discovers the identity of the serial killer before the culprit's activities are brought to an end in an unconventional way."Jennifer Eight" is a dark and moody film with a great deal of suspense, interesting characters and a number of unexpected plot developments.
Andy Garcia is convincing overall and Uma Thurman was very believable in a part that's hard to play.
In a scene where one of the main characters is killed off, by the killer who he mistakes for his partner (it's never explained why he thinks it's him, they look nothing alike and the killer doesn't even speak before he shoots the partner) you expect the serial killer to be killed off soon after and the movie to end.
In "Jennifer 8" Andy Garcia plays an L.A. detective who goes to a small town to find a women's killer who seemed to return after two years without making new victims.
This new investigation will lead to more conclusive clues on discovering that this murderer always female targets who happen to be blind and the only one who can help the police is an blind teacher (Uma Thurman) that might be the next victim.Moving with great thrills and some twists and turns, the film is incredibly good in its drama, in its effective suspense, only losing some credibility towards its conclusion of unbelievable situations and some deranged slowness when it comes to show the questioning of Garcia's character as the main suspect of his partner's murder while solving the case.
"Jennifer 8", panned by critics upon release, now finds itself being compared to some of the better films in the genre ("The Pledge", "Silence of the Lambs", "Seven", "Manhunter" etc).The film stars Andy Garcia as Sergeant John Berlin, a detective hot on the heels of a psycho sexual serial killer.
I got about half way through the film before I realised I did not really know what the film was even about, expect that fact that it involved a blind Uma Thurman and a stiff Andy Garcier in which they are supposedly meant to like each other, although I do not see a very effective connection between the two actors.
I feel the actors within the film are B-list featuring Andy Garcier, Uma Thurman, Kathy Baker and John Malkovich.I just felt as though the film was very slow and not very intense at all, with a mellow romance meant to be budding between the two main characters of the detective and the witness.
Even so I liked the performances of both Andy Garcia and Lance Henriksen and for that reason I have rated it accordingly.
Everyone seems to look the other way to avoid the person who turns out to be the killer maybe because the movie still has an hour or so to pad out, the time that it becomes crystal clear to the audience who that person is.The movie stars Andy Garcia as a cop with a movie cop name – John Berlin.
Garcia ends up falling in love(quite unsurprisingly!!) with the blind, Helena (Uma Thurman, as great as usual).
Andy Garcia, the under-rated Lance Henrikson, John Malkovich, and a young Uma Thurman are all fine.
Atmosphere can really make a movie and lord knows I'm all up for moody little cop thrillers when they work and I wanted Jennifer 8 to work.
Because for all the setup and ample atmosphere this film could have built from Jennifer 8 just falls apart in the end.Andy Garcia stars as John - a tired weary cop who moves from the big city to the small in hopes of rebuilding himself back up.