‘Suspect Zero’ stylish, but not satisfying

Ben Kingsley played nonviolent in “Gandhi,” but he’s all over it in “Suspect Zero.”

Kingsley is a vicious murderer who roams the country, dispatching victims and listening to thrill-kill motivational tapes in “Zero,” which fits into the broad category of “but” movies. It’s involving but illogical. It’s creepy but derivative. It’s not as carefully plotted as “Seven” or “The Silence of the Lambs,” but it’s sharper than, say, “Taking Lives.”

All of those movies are serial killer thrillers in which the cop is just as crazy as the killer he chases in a deadly game of cat-and-maniac. The cop here is Aaron Eckhart, draining the color from the already-beige role of a G-man who has been demoted for secret reasons you’ll guess immediately. The showier part goes to Kingsley, who forsakes passive resistance in favor of witty bloodthirstiness.

My main “but” is this, and it’s a matter of taste: “Suspect Zero” is stylish, but the whole plot revolves around the idea that the cop and the killer can read each other’s minds, which – to my taste – is not as interesting as it would be if “Suspect Zero” were a mystery with legitimate clues that the cop (and moviegoers) add up. Instead of the thrill of watching a puzzle come together, it’s as if every piece you pick up instantly fits.

There’s little actual detective work in “Zero” because Eckhart overhears or stumbles upon every clue. And, in place of the unnerving psychological connections between killer and cop in “Silence” and “Seven,” the connection here is mind-reading mumbo jumbo that reminds us that natural explanations are usually more satisfying and interesting than supernatural ones.