Twisted (5/10)

Jessica Shepard (Ashley Judd) no sooner gets appointed police Inspector but all the men with whom she sleeps start getting killed. Compounding the situation, her boss, police commissioner John Mills (Samuel L. Jackson), is also her surrogate father, having raised her since her father went on a killing rampage and killed her mother and then committed suicide. Then there’s her new partner, Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia), who seems supportive, but, is he?

There are scenes that are improbable, like Jessica speaking directly to a man she arrested without his attorney present, after he’s apparently been arraigned. Oh, yeah, his attorney (one of Jessica’s lovers) just happens to show up while she’s speaking to the guy. And, oh, yeah, Mike just happens to be lurking nearby, listening. There are four San Francisco Police Department “Technical Advisors” listed. Didn’t even one of them say that this scene is highly unlikely?

Jessica has to be the dumbest woman ever to be a cop. She drinks like a fish and always has lots of wine when she goes home and always passes out. Apparently she never connects the two.

This is a derivative, mediocre whodunit. If you don’t know who did it within the first half hour, you need to see more whodunits. The cinematography of San Francisco by Peter Deming is shrouded in lots of fog and the film is shot mostly at night. Alas, the cinematography is like the rest of the film, which seems to be missing something, like, maybe, originality? If I’ve seen the final denouement once I’ve seen it dozens of times.

I didn’t go to sleep and only looked at my watch a couple of times, so I guess it wasn’t terrible. At least it didn’t end with two people walking off into the fog saying that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

February 24, 2004

The End

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