Action Filled James Spader Has Interesting Role In Less-Than-Complex Film
Deciding to see “The Watcher” is like going to a brand-new restaurant and ordering the hamburger: Sure, it’ll be OK, but you know exactly what it’s going to taste like, and surely there’s something more interesting on the menu.
It’s a serial killer movie, and James Spader is in it, but the only surprise is that the killer is not played by Spader. He’s played by Keanu Reeves, in what is essentially the Dennis Hopper role from Reeves’ “Speed”: a maniac who taunts the cop (Spader) with sketchy details of his upcoming crimes, either because he wants to be caught or because he wants an audience for his string of grisly, mutilation-related quips.
Basically, there are two ways you can go with this kind of movie. The “Speed” way is all about action; the “Silence of the Lambs” way is all about psychology.
“The Watcher” is more of the former, I guess — there are car chases — but it’s all routine, with nothing to differentiate it from the other psycho killer movies you’ve seen (for a twist, couldn’t movie psychos do something other than murder? How about hideously redecorating people’s apartments while they’re out? Recording white-boy rap songs? Creating programs for the WB network?).
“The Watcher” is not interested in why the psycho acts like he does. The script renders him reassuringly inhuman, and the reliably wooden actor doesn’t help much. When Reeves looks into the camera, his face is supposed to suggest a complicated mind assessing its mayhem options, but it looks more like a guy looking at a park and thinking, “Oh. Trees.”
Spader is more interesting. His character has been designed to appear more maniacal than the killer. Spader shoots up (prescription) drugs, lives in squalor and wails to a psychoanalyst (Marisa Tomei, not bad) when he’s not single-mindedly pursuing Reeves.
Spader gives his line readings wit and intelligence, and he’s the focal point of the best shot in the movie, when dozens of cops on a manhunt miss their quarry, standing right behind them.
Still, there’s never any doubt where the movie is going or where it will stop on the way there (abandoned warehouse, cemetery, cell-phone calls from a nut). As a result, this competently made catch-me-if-you-can movie plays more like a catch-me-if-you-care movie. And we don’t much.
This sidebar appeared with the story: “The Watcher” Locations: Newport, River Park Square, Spokane Valley, Post Falls River City Cinemas Credits: Directed by Joe Charbanic, starring Keanu Reeves, James Spader, Marisa Tomei, Robert Cicchini, Chris Ellis, Ernie Hudson Running time: 1:33 Rating: R