TWISTED

US, 2004, 97 minutes, Colour.
Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Garcia, David Strathairn, Russell Long, D. W. Moffatt.
Directed by Philip Kaufmann.

Ashley Judd is a striking screen presence. She has appeared in quite a number of thrillers: early in her career, A Time for Killing and Heat; more lately, psychological thrillers with psychosexual overtones, Eye of the Beholder, Kiss the Girls, High Crime and now she is a policewoman in Twisted. She is on the way up in her career (but holds a deep, disturbing secret that her father was a serial killer and murdered her mother). However, she is a troubled woman, careless in her sexual relationships and frightened when she sees that the victims of a new serial killer have all been intimate with her.

She partners Andy Garcia and she (and the audience) become suspicious of him. Samuel L. Jackson is her mentor. Eventually, she is arrested on charges of murder but allowed out to act as bait to the killer – which, of course, is duly taken and the mystery solved. Many critics said the identity of the killer was obvious to them. Well, maybe…

This is quite a dark thriller, routine in many ways, especially when the director has a strong reputation with such films as The Right Stuff, Unbearable Lightness of Being and Quills. But Ashley Judd makes it reasonably worthwhile.

1. The popularity of police thrillers? Murder mysteries? Combination? The negative reviews the film received? Merited or not?

2. The San Francisco settings, the precincts, apartments, the Praesidio? Authentic atmosphere? Musical score?

3. The title, the reference to Jessica, to John Mills, to Jessica’s father? Reasons for being twisted?

4. The portrait of Jessica, the opening – the knife at her throat, the confrontation with the killer? The tactics, arrest? Her promotion? The affirmation from John Mills? Her relationship with him, memories of her parents? His testing her, affirmation of her work? The memory of her parents, keeping the secret? Her father as a serial killer? The murder of her mother? The alleged infidelity? The effect on Jessica, her joining the police force, her investigations? Her own personal life, promiscuous picking up men in bars? Her drinking and blackouts? The case for the multiple murders, the links with her? The first dead man, her having picked him up in the bar, finding him dead, her telling the authorities? Her new partnership with Mike Delmarco? The tension between them? Her giving him information – or not? The day’s investigation and it focusing on herself? The people giving evidence? Her relationship with Ray, the past, his defending the multiple killer? The friendship with Jimmy, rejecting him in the bar, his coming to her house, the night together, her finding him dead?

5. The style of the film, realism, hallucinations and dreams, distorted images, distorted mirrors? A sense of realism? The grim style – and the weather and its being overcast?

6. Jess at work, her clashes with the authorities, the tests by John, her collaboration with Mike? Her telling the truth about the men she was involved with? The investigation of herself? The autopsy? Her own drop of blood, taking it to be tested? Her doubts about herself because of the blackouts?

7. Her drinking, the blackouts, suspicions? Her suspicion of Mike? Relating to him, attracted to him? The clash with Jimmy, his death, her being arrested, in prison, John letting her out?

8. The interviews with the psychiatrist, her resistance, saying she was normal, her childhood, memories, fears? On the job? In the garage, the doctor as a possible suspect?

9. The final set-up, her going with John to see Mike, John as a character, authority, suave, testing people, Jimmy’s failure at the test in the bar? His protection of Jess? The confrontation at Mike’s, his setting up the scene, the story about the drugs and the hallucinations, drugging Mike, laying out the table – as in the photo of the murder scene and her father’s suicide? The gun? Mike’s escaping, Jess and her shock, ringing the police? John hearing the police, his death?

10. The climax, the impact of the truth, the fact that John was a serial killer, his jealousy of Jess’s mother, his judging Jess, protecting her by shooting her men friends? Her shooting him? His floating in the water?

11. Mike, genial, under suspicion, his work with Jess, attraction towards her, visiting the apartment? The end and his experience with John, the survivor?

12. The film seen as a police thriller, a psychodrama?