The Bone Collector
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Movie Reviews of The Bone Collector
Movie Review: Love this movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie just keeps you guessing and love these great actors who make it real.Movie Review: Bone Collector- A Thriller!
Summary: 5 Stars
Very interested and keeps you on the 'edge' thru the entire movie!Movie Review: Suspense Galore
Summary: 5 Stars
Great Movie - Always at the edge of your seat.Movie Review: Before *CSI* there was *The Bone Collector*
Summary: 4 Stars
The Bone Collector* (1999) is the third Angelina Jolie film set in New York City (*Life is All There Is* and *Hell's Kitchen NYC* are the first and second). It is the first of 2 films in which she plays an investigator who pursues a serial killer (*Taking Lives*, released in 2003, is the second). As I mentioned in my *Mojave Moon* review, *The Bone Collector* is the first big-budget movie to run Ms Jolie's name above the title. She plays opposite one of Hollywood's most respected leading men, Denzel Washington. Also appearing are Queen Latifah, Michael Rooker, Mike McGlone, Luiz Guzman, Leland Orser, John Benjamin Hickey, Bobby Cannevale, and Ed O'Neill. Philip Noyce (*Sliver* in '93, *Clear and Present Danger* in '94) directs.
*CSI* (Crime Scene Investigation) is the hottest TV series going today. It was first aired one year after *The Bone Collector*'s release. I don't know if the brains at CBS behind *CSI* were inspired by *The Bone Collector.* But one thing is sure: in 1999 *The Bone Collector* tapped the magic of police forensics on the big screen in the same way that *CSI* does now on the small screen.
But although the *Bone Collector* soars, it carries an annoying burden on its back that throws a wobble on its flight to glory. The blame is not due the acting, direction, camera, scenery, editing, or music. All of these are excellent and make for a very stylish movie, one that pleases the eyes and ears. But the move fails to satisfy the mind. Read my lips: the problem is the script.
Before *The Bone Collector*, two very highly-rated films had set the standard for serial killer mysteries. These were *The Silence of the Lambs* (1991) and *Se7ven* (1995). *The Bone Collector* matches them in style. Perhaps it even surpasses them, as its atmospherics are creepier. But *Se7ven*'s script is better. *Silence*'s script is way better.
About *The Bone Collector* script, there are troubling weaknesses. One weakness concerns the conflict of authority in the NYPD hierarchy. This conflict is central to the dramatic tension of the movie as a whole, and so its weakness needs some care to explain.
Denzel Washington is Lincoln Rhyme, a quadraplegic cripple (which means his four limbs--two arms, two legs--are paralyzed). He draws the full pay of a detective because he was incapacitated by an on-the-job accident. But he performs no official police duties. He's not fit to. Yet apparently on the strength of the respect the police have for his crime scene forensics expertise, he is able to insert Patrolwoman Amelia Donaghy (Jolie) into the task force that's trying to catch the so-called Bone Collector serial killer. Donaghy is just a beat cop with no plans to become a detective. (She does display a natural talent for forensics, which is why Rhyme is interested in her.) Rhyme doesn't just place her as an observer on the task force...he promotes her to sole CSI operative. Linked to Rhyme by radio, she acts as his eyes and ears at the crime scene, while back in his apartment he calls the shots from bed. Right here I'm asking myself, "But if she, untrained in CSI work, messes up, and Rhyme is not on official duty status, then who is responsible?" HELLO--the real world does not work that way, especially not when it comes to a high-stakes big-city crime caper like the movie is supposed to show us.
It gets worse. Rhyme's arrangement with Donaghy is resented by the regular CSI team that works under the authority of Captain Cheney (Rooker). Cheney is no friend of Rhyme. In fact Cheney, who took over forensics after Rhyme's accident, has been replacing Rhyme's CSI people with his own loyalists. (That's why Rhyme wants Donaghy; he's not impressed with Cheney's people.) Rhyme's allies are Eddie Ortiz (Guzman), an expert in police lab work, and detectives Solomon (McGlone) and Sellitto (O'Neill) who are homicide dicks, not CSI at all. It was Sellitto who first came to see Rhyme about the Bone Collector. He mentioned that the Chief of Police sent him. The NYPD is all shook up because the Bone Collector kidnapped a VIP and his wife. No doubt Rhyme's advice in this dark hour would be a great help. But it is just as clear he is in no shape to resume any real authority--he has a spasmodic attack right in the middle of the talk with Sellitto! Rhyme's caregiver (Latifah) abruptly orders a panicked Sellitto to leave. It is incomprehensible to see, a little later, Lincoln Rhyme, now on the case from his bed, blithely brushing Captain Cheney aside. After an uncomfortable Cheney leaves Rhyme's apartment, Rhyme orders Donaghy to go out on her first mission. "Should we keep Cheney in the loop?" asks Sellitto. "F*ck him," is Rhyme's reply.
I'll summarize the power play at work here: Rhyme has no official authority over the Bone Collector case, he's just an advisor; Sellitto is Rhyme's friend and ally, and as detective he has enough authority to order Donaghy to do what Rhyme tells her; Captain Cheney, however, is in charge of CSI and is ranked higher than Sellitto; Donaghy is able to do CSI work only because Sellitto is keeping Cheny out of the loop. The crack in the chain of command eventually breaks out in the open. Starting at 1h:34m:26s, Cheney shows up at a crime scene to interrupt Donaghy and to berate Rhyme over her radio. "I've got some news for you," he shouts. "You are not a cop anymore, you understand that? What you are is a f*cking meddling cripple. Now, I'm going to put your little girlfriend under arrest. You don't mind that, do you?" Occupied with venting his spleen at Rhyme, Cheney doesn't notice Donaghy giving him the slip. She disappears into the night to continue her search for the Bone Collector!
Of course in the end their little stint as loose cannons comes out good for Rhyme and Donaghy. As it would only in Holly-would. Donaghy's reckless gamble with her police career is, in terms of real life, totally unbelievable.
In *Silence of the Lambs*, Claire Starling (Jodie Foster) was an FBI trainee, not an active-duty agent. But because she showed exceptional ability, she was given special permission to take part in the Buffalo Bill serial killer investigation. The appeal of Foster's character is that she's the ever-dutiful newbie, respectful and polite at every turn. We believe in her all the way. Claire could never end up chasing a crazed murderer while at the same time being chased by her own agency for stealing police evidence, as did Amelia Donaghy.
A second weakness of the script is the climax, when the killer reveals himself. I'm not going to spoil the suspense for you by explaining what happens. I'll just say the perp pops up in a totally unexpected, "Jack-in-the-box" way. The trail of evidence that Rhyme and Donaghy had carefully tracked for an hour and a half of the movie does not lead to this guy at all. So you're left with (or at least I was left with) a feeling of having been taken on a thrill ride to nowhere for most of the film. The one good that comes out of it is that Donaghy deduces the perp is going after Rhyme. But who the perp is and why he wants Rhyme dead we learn from the perp himself, not from Amelia's detective work.
Another script weakness regards the state of Rhyme's health. In the beginning of the film we watch him convince his doctor to help him though his "final transition" (physician-assisted suicide). Rhyme speaks of the dysreflexia seizures that are occuring more often, and the buildup of fluid in his spine which is a degenerative condition. "We both know I'm waiting for the seizure that's gonna make me a vegetable." The doctor is clearly reluctant to be part of Rhyme's final transition. But since he has no medical argument to counter Rhyme, he finally agrees to do the deed on the coming Sunday. At the end of the film it's Christmas, nearly two months later. Rhyme and his doctor are talking again, this time about the view from Rhyme's window. "It's looking better every day," Rhyme says. Then Amelia enters followed by other guests, and a Christmas party ensues. "It's looking better every day" is a hint, I guess, that Rhyme is getting better. Or at least feeling better. Well, I want to know what happened. Six weeks earlier he was all ready to check out. His doctor agreed that his health was in irreversable decline. Now we see Rhyme partying with Amelia and friends. Why he's still here is left to our imagination.
OK, now that we're on the topic of the relationship between Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Donaghy, enough criticism. Ms Jolie remarked that the best sex scenes she ever did onscreen were with Denzel Washington. (Remember, *The Bone Collector* was made after *Pushing Tin*, so we must conclude these scenes were even better for her than kissing Billy Bob.) What she meant was that because these scenes were almost non-physical in nature, they required a lot more emotional involvement from the actors.
I find these scenes just amazing! There's an intense exchange of glances when Amelia accidentially drops a small piece of crime-scene evidence on Lincoln's chest. There's Amelia touching the tracheotomy scar on his throat as he sleeps; then she fondles the index finger of his left hand, the only finger that he has control of. As she does this, her face is rapt with what looks like orgasmic meditation. There's an obvious symbolism to this that I won't bother to explain. At the very end of the film she again fondles that finger. Immediately afterward, starting at 1h:47m:01s soon before the film fades to black, we're seeing Lincoln's face full on and Amelia's from the left side. Watch carefully, you can observe Ms Jolie lifting her left eyebrow in that tradwmark way of hers as she looks into Denzel's eyes...that eyebrow, one commentator wrote, with which Jolie could lift weights. Watch Lincoln's facial expression. She's sending a signal, he's receiving it. It's so obvious. It's a signal that she has a present for him this Christmas that doesn't come sealed in a box wrapped in foil paper and a bright bow. This is surely one reason why he told his doctor, "It's getting better every day."
Before I close I want to summarize the Amelia Donaghy character. Her father's name was John Donaghy. He was born in Brooklyn, was a NYPD patrolman, and was 47 years old when he killed himself with his service revolver. Amelia found his body at his apartment. This haunts her, naturally. Amelia's mother, Linda Wilken, is 6 years older than her husband. She was born in Salem, Massachussetts and lives there at present. John and Linda were divorced in 1977 when Amelia was 6 years old. She grew up in Salem with her mother. As a teen she did catalogue modeling. After high school she moved to New York to attend Washington College. Then she entered the New York Police Academy. Following the footsteps of her Dad, to whom she was very attached, she became a policewoman. She lives in an apartment in Queens. Many reviewers of *The Bone Collector* describe Amelia as a "rookie cop" when Lincoln Rhyme takes her on as his assistant. That is not true. At 19m:16s Captain Cheney asks Amelia if she is a rookie, and she says no. She's been on the force a while. As a cop she has high marks from her superiors; Lincoln praises her, "You're gold shield material" (detective material). Absolutely, Amelia is no rookie cop.
As a woman, Amelia is lovely but modest. She wears little or no makeup, doesn't let her hair grow too long and keeps it tied back, and dresses simply. But still she's a sexual creature with an active love life. It's hard for her to commit to a relationship, though--even harder for her than for the men she knows intimately. It appears that Lincoln Rhyme is the one man Amelia's been waiting for. But why does she fall in love with a cripple? How long will this relationship last? How long CAN it last? These questions make Amelia and Lincoln all the more intriguing to us.
Movie Review: A Chilling, Above Average Suspense Thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Bone Collector," based on Jeffrey Deaver's best-selling novel, is a gothic suspense thriller that takes the viewer below the streets of New York City, to places dark and chilling, where an evil serial killer does his dirty deeds. Creepy!!Police detective Lincoln Rhyme, (Denzel Washington is wonderful in this role - but isn't he always?), is considered to be THE genius of forensic science. His books on the subject are mandatory study at the Police Academy. During an investigation, four years before, Rhyme was involved in a terrible on-the-job accident which left him a quadriplegic and bedridden. Attached to life sustaining machines, he is only able to move one finger and his head and neck. He is subject to seizures that threaten to leave him a vegetable. A very angry man, he is bored and, at times, suicidal. Still an official member of the force, his former colleagues visit him constantly and involve him in difficult cases. A new, troubling case forces them to seek his help, yet again.
Rookie cop, Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie), works with the city's troubled youth. By chance she discovers the half-buried body of a powerful New York City businessman, near a railroad track. She, almost intuitively, knows what to do to protect the forensic evidence. Sending a witness off to buy a disposable camera, she takes photos of the crime scene before a rainstorm can wash away the evidence. She then, single-handedly, stops a train to preserve valuable clues. Rhyme decides she has natural forensic talent and demands she be placed on the case. So she reluctantly joins his team. Donaghy does the leg work, connected by a headset to Rhyme, while he instructs her. The two puzzle over clues and work the case from his bedside. And the leg work is brutally grim. This killer, intelligent and demented, thinks up some awful ways to commit murder. The crime scenes are elaborately set-up and clues are purposefully left that would stump the most avid puzzle addict. The gruesome crimes remind me of those in the movie "Seven."
The mystery is intriguing and the forensic work absolutely fascinates. The chemistry between Rhyme and Donaghy is palpable. This is more than a student-mentor bond, although it takes them a while to get the relationship off the ground. He is cranky and imperious - she is just plain ornery. Amelia brings him to life again and he stops contemplating euthanasia. In turn, he brings new energy to Amelia's life and forces her to open up. Queen Latifa (as Rhyme's nurse) and Luis Guzman (as a fellow cop ands friend) are show stealers.
This is no "Silence of the Lambs," but it is good entertainment. The camera gives the ambiance a dark and brooding look and provides some interesting angles. Often predictable, there are still surprises and the growing closeness between the detective and the cop is very well done and subtle. Although "The Bone Collector" is not a "must see," it is certainly an exciting way to spend a rainy night.