| I have a confession to make: my pen dried up at the very beginning of the movie so I have no notes to jog my memory of actors or whatever. I understand that the book (by John Patterson) is extremely disturbing and violent and rich in explicit, painful detail of the ordeal suffered by the victims of the serial abductor and rapist, Casanova. |
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| I was VERY pleased to find out before seeing the movie through an extremely good inside source that there would be no such scenes in the film. I HATE that stuff and I was able to see the movie thanks to their omission. |
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But I am sure some people will feel gypped of the power of the novel. So go read it. I will admit that not knowing (as a movie audience member) just how horrible the treatment of the women is, makes the behavior of Morgan Freeman's character less justifiable.
Basically, the idea of the story is, women are being abducted. Coincidentally, some of them are turning up dead occasionally in the woods, in a brazen show of "you can't catch me!" |
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Morgan Freeman is a forensic psychologist who gets personally involved when his niece is captured. One victim, played extremely well by Ashley Judd, escapes and helps them find the bad guy.
The acting is great. The music is creepy. The idea is chilling. The detective work that Freeman exercises is intuitive. The story and the policework is dangall silly. I, as a tender flower of a woman, was frightened by the entire movie, and Judd's abduction scene in particular was very scary. The men I was with had no more reaction than, and I paraphrase to be gentle: "That was dumb." They did agree the abduction was well done. |
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An awful lot of people do go rushing into the lion's cave with no backup or really any safety precautions, and Judd is taken all over the place with them as if no post-traumatic effects would be experienced by her by doing so. To her credit, she looked pretty uncomfortable. |
| Morgan Freeman can do no wrong in my eyes (I am shameless in my adoration) and he is pretty much how you would expect him to be: perceptive and sage and kindly. But then he charges around all insane (presumably blinded by personal emotion, what with his niece being captured and all) and you just go, man, I thought you were smart. |
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The guys I saw the movie with were bothered by the tight camera work that made a viewer not quite sure what was happening some times - I found that it involved me more viscerally with the film and it made me scared.I'd say ladies, bring a date and make him pay matinee price and then you pick up the snacks, because it's scary, it's just not very smart.
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