THE WATCHER
US, 2001, 95 minutes, Colour.
James Spader, Marisa Tomei, Ernie Hudson, Keanu Reeves.
Directed by Joe Scharbanic.
The Watcher is a brief film about a serial killer. The setting is Chicago in winter. The difference is that we see the killer almost from the beginning of the film. The thrust is the interaction between the killer and a policeman from Los Angeles where the killer had previously murdered a great number of women. He has moved to Chicago as a challenge to himself and to the FBI agent.
Keanu Reeves shows malevolence as the killer as well as the superficial charm that has marked a number of his characters. James Spader is the anguished FBI agent whose wife has died in a tragic fire and who is continually taunted by the killer, even to the sending of photos of the women he is about to kill and giving him a deadline. He is burnt out, been on the case for three and a half years, is undergoing counselling at the police headquarters, is prone to migraines. (In this sense, he resembles the detective played by Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct.) Marisa Tomei is the psychiatrist who, ultimately, is in danger from the serial killer.
Both actors portray their characters well, indicating something of the interaction between the two. As regards the killer himself, we do not understand very much about why he kills, but see how he kills and the consequences. The film is fairly straightforward although the director uses a lot of video commercial techniques, especially in the chases to create a surreal atmosphere.
1. The impact of this kind of serial killer film? Focus on the killer? Focus on the FBI agent? Focus on the victims?
2. The Chicago settings, winter, so much of the action taking place on the streets and during the night? Musical score?
3. The title, the focus on the serial killer, his stalking the women for weeks, his noticeboard with the indications of their behaviour? His getting into their apartments, making them dance, killing them? The brutality? His taking the photos, sending them to Joel Campbell and giving him a deadline to stop the murders? How well delineated his character, Keanu Reeves' presence? Age, background, madness? His antagonism towards the women? The confrontation with Campbell, the photos, the deadlines, the phone calls? Especially in the dead girl's apartment? Going up in the elevator with him? At the cemetery, the final confrontation, Polly in danger? His taking Polly, taunting Campbell about the tapes and his therapy? In the warehouse, the fire and the candles (and his using fire to avoid Campbell pursuing him in the car)? His shooting Campbell, Campbell tricking him with thanking him, the final fight, the fire and his death?
4. Joel Campbell, FBI agent, burnt out, the migraines? His psychiatric treatment and discussion with Polly? On the job, the Chicago FBI and police suspicious of him? Allowing him to participate in the investigations? In the police station, at the scenes of the crimes? His getting the photos, his realisation of what had happened, the posting of the photo all day on the television, his giving out notices in the street, finally working out where the girl worked, getting her address, just failing to stop the killing? The girl with the tattoo, the boyfriend, locating the coffee shop where she begged on the street? Too late to save her? His memories of the past, of his wife's death? The taking of Polly, his going to the cemetery, going to the warehouse? The confrontation, his psychological use of thanking the killer? Saving Polly, the fire and their leaping into the water?
5. Polly, the psychiatrist, her interest in Campbell, the sessions, the questions she asked? Her visiting him in hospital? Her being taken, the dangers, the rescue?
6. The FBI agents, the police, the routine work? The detection? The use of all the media to try to stop the murder of the young woman, the failure? The young woman on the street, her meeting the killer, his making her dance with him, his tracking her down, the pursuit? Her death? Her boyfriend and his running away, fearing the police, giving them the information?
7. A small-focused examination of a police pursuing a killer and the killer taunting the police? The phenomenon of serial killers, madness and violence, sexuality, the role of serial killers in recent American history?
