Given the week that troubled actress Lindsay Lohan has had, it almost seems like a cruel joke to release
I Know Who Killed Me right at the end of it. I mean, hasn't she suffered and been embarrassed enough? The movie was not screened for critics, and when you see it, you'll know why. This is an empty-headed little thriller that tries to hide its lack of substance with flashy style. Unfortunately, it's not quite stylish enough to take our minds off the fact that nothing's going on. This is a movie that keeps on trying to trick us into thinking something is going on. The ominous music builds in every scene, the dark shadows grow, and Lohan herself tries her best to act frightened whenever she can. It's all for nothing, thanks to the simplistic and uninspired screenplay provided by first-time screenwriter Jeff Hammond.
Lohan plays Aubrey Fleming, a bright college student who writes stories about a sleazy stripper named Dakota Moss. Early in the film, we see her writing class enraptured as she reads out loud the sordid exploits of Dakota, but I couldn't help but think the writing sounded like something out of a trashy grocery store rag. After attending a football game with some friends, Aubrey goes missing. Turns out she's the latest victim of a serial killer that's been stalking young girls and torturing them. Yes, the villain in this piece is another guy who gets his jollies out of taking girls to his vast torture chamber palace that looks like it cost a fortune to build, let alone maintain. I suspect that he and the villain from
Captivity exchange tips when it comes to getting blood stains out of their clothes, and how to keep their torture palaces hidden when company drops by. We're treated to a couple scenes where Aubrey is tortured and maimed within an inch of her life. Somehow, she is able to survive the torture, and is found mangled but still alive by the side of a road. One of her legs and arms are in bad shape, and need to be amputated by the hospital staff. When Aubrey's relieved parents (Julia Ormond and Neal McDonough) come racing to be by their daughter's side, she greets them with a blank stare, states she's never met them before, and claims that her name is Dakota Moss.
Is Aubrey's behavior the result of trauma from her recent incident? Does she have amnesia? Is she hiding something? These are all the questions at the center of
I Know Who Killed Me, and all of them are eventually answered, though not always in a satisfactory way. The one question it fails to answer is why should we care? This is a movie that builds and builds, but doesn't even seem to know what it's building up to. The issue of Aubrey supposedly forgetting everything about her own life, and assuming the identity of this fictional character from her stories, is never given the amount of drama it deserves. We know that her parents are obviously upset by their daughter's bizarre behavior since being discovered, but the movie never quite digs deep enough. Aside from one scene, we never truly get to see them sit down and talk with her. Most of the time, they stand in the background and look at her with concern. What do they think of all this? What is it like to live with a daughter who supposedly thinks she is someone else? Could we at least get a scene with the parents alone discussing their thoughts on this strange situation they find themselves in? Oddly enough, the parents don't even seem very concerned about the man who did this to her. The police tell them that the man is still at large and could be coming after her again, but he is never even spoken of ever again. The villain is just a plot device in this movie, used so that Aubrey can disappear, and so that there can be a standard horror movie fight scene at the end of the movie. When the identity of the madman is discovered, we meet it with a curious disinterest, because the movie forgets to give us even a clear motive for his actions.
Rather than helping us identify with the characters, the movie seems content to parade some stylish but hollow camera tricks up on the screen. We get some bizarre nightmares and hallucination scenes, and we also get a lot of blue. The color blue is used a lot in this movie, though for reasons never quite explained. The villain dresses entirely in blue, and uses torture devices with blue handles. There are scenes where every color is depicted in black and white, except for objects that are blue. Aubrey's boyfriend keeps on handing her bouquets of blue roses. There are even some scenes that are shot with a blue camera filter, making it look like we're watching the scene through a camera lens that's been doused with toilet bowl cleaner. What all of this means, I couldn't quite tell. I was, however, truly surprised that the filmmakers did not take their obsession one step further and throw in a cameo by the Blue Man Group somewhere. It comes across as being more distracting than necessary. It's almost as if director Chris Sivertson liked the look so much, he kept on doing it, even when it was not needed. When it's not confusing us with color-related symbolism, it falls back on standard cheap thriller standbys, such as ghostly whispers on the soundtrack and mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. The only thing missing is the famous jump scare where a cat leaps out of the dark at the main character for no reason. This is curious, since Aubrey does indeed own a cat. It's one of those hairless ones, kind of like the one Dr. Evil had in the
Austin Powers movies. They missed a golden opportunity. Building a jump scare around a hairless cat leaping out of the shadows at the heroine would have been a good twist on an old favorite.
The screenplay that
I Know Who Killed Me is built upon is shaky indeed, with characters who come and go as it sees fit, and often disappear without a trace. Aubrey seems to be covered by heavy police presence during the first half of the film, complete with detectives investigating the mystery and a swarm of cops guarding the driveway of her house, and checking the ID of anyone who pulls up. These officers disappear completely about halfway through, so Aubrey can come and go from the house as she pleases without anyone wondering where she is, or if she's putting herself in danger by investigating the mystery herself. Because the supporting cast is treated as a mere afterthought, Lohan is forced to carry nearly every scene by herself. She does a serviceable job, but never quite seems to put as much into her performance as she should. It's a demanding role, since she is pretty much required to play two completely different characters throughout. She's somewhat bland and passionless when she's playing Aubrey, and as Dakota, she lacks the flirtatious energy that the character needs. Of course, this could have a lot to do with the fact that the movie almost seems to be afraid of Dakota. She's a stripper who removes very little clothing during the course of the film, and when she has sex with a man, the movie keeps on cutting back to Aubrey's mother downstairs, listening to the sexual acts going on upstairs, and scrubbing the kitchen sink faster and faster, as if she's trying to scrub the sounds she hears away. The scene comes across as being unintentionally comical, instead of arousing.
I've tried my best to be as vague as possible in talking about this movie, but anyone in the audience who is half awake should not have a hard time figuring this one out.
I Know Who Killed Me isn't as deep or perplexing as it seems to think it is. It's a shallow and dull thriller that has fooled itself into thinking that its an interesting one with a winding plot. The plot revelations don't even seem to have much impact on the characters, and we only learn about one of the parent's reaction, since the other one supposedly falls off the face of the earth during the film's final half hour. Everything gets wrapped up in an all-too neat package that seems more like the director ran out of film, rather than wrapped up his story. We're left asking so many questions, and all we get is an ending where the credits start to roll just when we were about to get some real answers.
0 comments
Given the week that troubled actress Lindsay Lohan has had, it almost seems like a cruel joke to release I Know Who Killed Me right at the end of it. I mean, hasn't she suffered and been embarrassed enough? The movie was not screened for critics, and when you see it, you'll know why. This is an empty-headed little thriller that tries to hide its lack of substance with flashy style. Unfortunately, it's not quite stylish enough to take our minds off the fact that nothing's going on. This is a movie that keeps on trying to trick us into thinking something is going on. The ominous music builds in every scene, the dark shadows grow, and Lohan herself tries her best to act frightened whenever she can. It's all for nothing, thanks to the simplistic and uninspired screenplay provided by first-time screenwriter Jeff Hammond.
Lohan plays Aubrey Fleming, a bright college student who writes stories about a sleazy stripper named Dakota Moss. Early in the film, we see her writing class enraptured as she reads out loud the sordid exploits of Dakota, but I couldn't help but think the writing sounded like something out of a trashy grocery store rag. After attending a football game with some friends, Aubrey goes missing. Turns out she's the latest victim of a serial killer that's been stalking young girls and torturing them. Yes, the villain in this piece is another guy who gets his jollies out of taking girls to his vast torture chamber palace that looks like it cost a fortune to build, let alone maintain. I suspect that he and the villain from Captivity exchange tips when it comes to getting blood stains out of their clothes, and how to keep their torture palaces hidden when company drops by. We're treated to a couple scenes where Aubrey is tortured and maimed within an inch of her life. Somehow, she is able to survive the torture, and is found mangled but still alive by the side of a road. One of her legs and arms are in bad shape, and need to be amputated by the hospital staff. When Aubrey's relieved parents (Julia Ormond and Neal McDonough) come racing to be by their daughter's side, she greets them with a blank stare, states she's never met them before, and claims that her name is Dakota Moss.
Is Aubrey's behavior the result of trauma from her recent incident? Does she have amnesia? Is she hiding something? These are all the questions at the center of I Know Who Killed Me, and all of them are eventually answered, though not always in a satisfactory way. The one question it fails to answer is why should we care? This is a movie that builds and builds, but doesn't even seem to know what it's building up to. The issue of Aubrey supposedly forgetting everything about her own life, and assuming the identity of this fictional character from her stories, is never given the amount of drama it deserves. We know that her parents are obviously upset by their daughter's bizarre behavior since being discovered, but the movie never quite digs deep enough. Aside from one scene, we never truly get to see them sit down and talk with her. Most of the time, they stand in the background and look at her with concern. What do they think of all this? What is it like to live with a daughter who supposedly thinks she is someone else? Could we at least get a scene with the parents alone discussing their thoughts on this strange situation they find themselves in? Oddly enough, the parents don't even seem very concerned about the man who did this to her. The police tell them that the man is still at large and could be coming after her again, but he is never even spoken of ever again. The villain is just a plot device in this movie, used so that Aubrey can disappear, and so that there can be a standard horror movie fight scene at the end of the movie. When the identity of the madman is discovered, we meet it with a curious disinterest, because the movie forgets to give us even a clear motive for his actions.
Rather than helping us identify with the characters, the movie seems content to parade some stylish but hollow camera tricks up on the screen. We get some bizarre nightmares and hallucination scenes, and we also get a lot of blue. The color blue is used a lot in this movie, though for reasons never quite explained. The villain dresses entirely in blue, and uses torture devices with blue handles. There are scenes where every color is depicted in black and white, except for objects that are blue. Aubrey's boyfriend keeps on handing her bouquets of blue roses. There are even some scenes that are shot with a blue camera filter, making it look like we're watching the scene through a camera lens that's been doused with toilet bowl cleaner. What all of this means, I couldn't quite tell. I was, however, truly surprised that the filmmakers did not take their obsession one step further and throw in a cameo by the Blue Man Group somewhere. It comes across as being more distracting than necessary. It's almost as if director Chris Sivertson liked the look so much, he kept on doing it, even when it was not needed. When it's not confusing us with color-related symbolism, it falls back on standard cheap thriller standbys, such as ghostly whispers on the soundtrack and mysterious figures lurking in the shadows. The only thing missing is the famous jump scare where a cat leaps out of the dark at the main character for no reason. This is curious, since Aubrey does indeed own a cat. It's one of those hairless ones, kind of like the one Dr. Evil had in the Austin Powers movies. They missed a golden opportunity. Building a jump scare around a hairless cat leaping out of the shadows at the heroine would have been a good twist on an old favorite.
The screenplay that I Know Who Killed Me is built upon is shaky indeed, with characters who come and go as it sees fit, and often disappear without a trace. Aubrey seems to be covered by heavy police presence during the first half of the film, complete with detectives investigating the mystery and a swarm of cops guarding the driveway of her house, and checking the ID of anyone who pulls up. These officers disappear completely about halfway through, so Aubrey can come and go from the house as she pleases without anyone wondering where she is, or if she's putting herself in danger by investigating the mystery herself. Because the supporting cast is treated as a mere afterthought, Lohan is forced to carry nearly every scene by herself. She does a serviceable job, but never quite seems to put as much into her performance as she should. It's a demanding role, since she is pretty much required to play two completely different characters throughout. She's somewhat bland and passionless when she's playing Aubrey, and as Dakota, she lacks the flirtatious energy that the character needs. Of course, this could have a lot to do with the fact that the movie almost seems to be afraid of Dakota. She's a stripper who removes very little clothing during the course of the film, and when she has sex with a man, the movie keeps on cutting back to Aubrey's mother downstairs, listening to the sexual acts going on upstairs, and scrubbing the kitchen sink faster and faster, as if she's trying to scrub the sounds she hears away. The scene comes across as being unintentionally comical, instead of arousing.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home