It is explained at the start of the film that the spooky killer in The Watcher targets victims, follows them around undetected, then one night waits for them to come back home where he is waiting to off them. It makes the killer seem like a meticulous and brilliant character, but then the movie keeps going forward and we realize very quickly that he is more interested in leaving a bundle of hints and clues as to his whereabouts then in continuing his spree. So many hints and clues, in fact, that viewing the film becomes more of an exercise in implausibility than a piece of escapism.
It stars a casual Keanu Reeves as Griffin, the serial killer who thrives on the chase provided by a retired cop named Campbell (James Spader). Griffin leaves photos of his targets for Campbell, FedEx packages, and phone calls which state that he has until 9:00 p.m. on the same day to save the women (women who live alone, surprise, surprise) because this is apparently what the screenwriters believe that murderers do. Of course, Campbell needs to have a physical affliction in order to be the protagonist, so we find out that he has suffered from painful migraine headaches for a long time. Naturally, his head is fine whenever he is at work or pursuing the killer, but this is not exactly a movie concerned with such things as realism.
In fact, there are too many tired conventions to name. How about those flashbacks by the cop, deeply troubled at how he wasn't able to save "the woman he cared for"? Why not make the cop end up in an elevator standing next to the killer without his knowledge? Or how about throwing in a female therapist (Marisa Tomei) for the cop as the woman who (gasp!) may end up being the killer's next victim? Maybe the main cop on the case could face ridicule by his fellow cops for his odd and peculiar ways! Man, can we at least not use the old, abandoned warehouse for the climactic final showdown? Come on!
A movie like The Watcher isn't really about the performances, although I suppose Spader is fairly good as the lead zombie character. Joe Charbanic is the director, and I guess he's got a few moments of interest amidst all the clichés, but he's clearly recycling everything at his disposal. Shield your eyes during one specifically lame chase scene, where an eager cop (Chris Ellis) is pursuing a perpetrator in his squad car while simultaneously maintaining a two-way conversation on his cell phone. Ellis ends up running after the criminal on foot, tackling him, and continuing the chat as if nothing has happened. Right.
I've said this before, but with World Trade Center bombers and crazy snipers out there, moviemakers are really going to have to take a hard look at what an audience will swallow in today's screenplays. For a movie about gruesome murders and supposed suspense, The Watcher is disappontingly dry. I rented this movie and it was categorized in the Horror section at the video store. Sadly, that's probably the scariest thing about it.
