Film review: 'The Bone Collector' 'Bone' Collects Audiences / Washington and Jolie provide the charisma in director Noyce's gripping urban thriller
Movie-star charisma and the public's insatiable appetite for serial killers are the chief drawing cards for this urban thriller about a quadriplegic police crime scene forensics expert who teams with a young female cop to capture an imaginative murderer with a penchant for baroque clues.
Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, whose visages are prominently featured in an endless series of screen-filling close-ups, provide the charisma, and director Phillip Noyce has invested the material with gripping cinematic tension. "The Bone Collector", which received its world premiere during the weekend at the Montreal Film Festival (it was partially lensed in Montreal), should do solid fall business for Universal.
Washington plays Lincoln Rhyme, a forensics expert and best-selling author whose brilliant career was cut short as a result of a terrible accident in a subway tunnel during a crime scene investigation. Paralyzed from the neck down and connected to a battery of machines, he is still technically a cop, periodically assisting on investigations. But mostly he lies on his motorized bed in his well-appointed New York apartment, watching the peregrine falcon perched outside his window. With a doctor friend's help, he is preparing to commit what he euphemistically calls his "final transition."
Rhyme puts those suicidal plans on hold when he's enlisted by his fellow cops to help them with an investigation. A wealthy couple has been abducted by a New York cabbie (his visual trademark is a tiny monkey hanging from a noose on the rear-view mirror), and the husband is found dead -- buried except for his outstretched hand, skinned to the bone and wearing a wedding ring.
The young policewoman who makes this gruesome discovery is gorgeous Amelia Donaghy (Jolie), who reveals her natural penchant for forensics by her quick-thinking preservation of the evidence. She's also more than a little daring, as demonstrated by her single-handedly stopping a train that's about to intrude upon the crime scene. Rhyme, sensing a kindred spirit, enlists her to assist him in the case despite her lack of experience and impending transfer to a desk job.
Soon the traditional cinematic cat-and-mouse game between killer and capturers ensue, with the former leaving a series of clues that seem to have come from the turn of the century. As the police use Rhyme's apartment as a base of operations, Amelia acts as Rhyme's eyes and ears, exploring a series of grisly crime scenes.
But she invariably arrives too late to save the victims, who suffer such horrors as a deadly scalding by steam and being eaten alive by rats -- details of which are not kept from the audience.
Most of the detectives on the case are Rhyme's friendly former colleagues, played in suitably hard-boiled fashion by Ed O'Neill, Mike McGlone and Luis Guzman. But this wouldn't be a cop movie without a conflict between the lead character and his captain; sure enough, Rhyme's boss, Capt. Cheney (Michael Rooker), is unaccountably hostile to his disabled employee and Amelia in a plot angle that becomes wearisome.
Equally tiresome is the relationship between Rhyme and his devoted nurse, Thelma, with the charismatic Queen Latifah reduced to saying things like "Not on my shift", looking concerned and doing crossword puzzles while listening to Rhyme's urgent radio messages to Amelia.
The convoluted plotting culminates in the none-too-credible revelation that the killer is not merely some anonymous wacko but one of the supporting characters, and the climax features one of the more unusual fight scenes in recent memory: between the deranged killer and Rhyme. The fact that his character is paralyzed doesn't prevent Washington from kicking a little ass -- the encounter is both ludicrous and a total hoot. But the main focus of the story concentrates on the growing relationship between Rhyme and his beautiful protege, with the possibility of a romantic relationship not excluded.
Jeremy Iacone's screenplay, adapted from a novel by Jeffery Deaver, is as occasionally clunky and cliched as his previous effort for producer Martin Bergman, "One Tough Cop", but it mostly gets the job done.
Noyce, who demonstrated his acumen for suspense in such works as "Dead Calm" and Harrison Ford's Tom Clancy flicks, wrings the maximum tension from the proceedings, delivering a highly professional and visually handsome production whose pace rarely slackens. Noyce is smart enough to know that his best assets are his stars, in whom he places a great deal of visual emphasis.
Washington delivers his usual charismatic intensity as the immobile Rhyme, and Jolie provides further proof that she definitely has the goods for big-screen stardom.
THE BONE COLLECTOR
Universal Pictures
A Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures presentation
Credits: Director: Phillip Noyce; Screenwriter: Jeremy Iacone; Producers: Martin Bregman, Louis A. Stroller, Michael Bregman; Executive producers: Michael Klawitter, Dan Jinks; Director of photography: Dean Semler; Production designer: Nigel Phelps; Editor: William Hoy; Music: Craig Armstrong. Cast: Lincoln Rhyme: Denzel Washington; Amelia Donaghy: Angelina Jolie; Thelma: Queen Latifah; Capt. Howard Cheney: Michael Rooker; Detective Kenny Solomon: Mike McGlone; Eddie Ortiz: Luis Guzman; Richard Thompson: Leland Orser; Dr. Barry Lehman: John Benjamin Hickey; Steve: Bobby Cannavale; Detective Paulie Sellitto: Ed O'Neill. MPAA rating: R. Color/stereo. Running time -- 120 minutes.
Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, whose visages are prominently featured in an endless series of screen-filling close-ups, provide the charisma, and director Phillip Noyce has invested the material with gripping cinematic tension. "The Bone Collector", which received its world premiere during the weekend at the Montreal Film Festival (it was partially lensed in Montreal), should do solid fall business for Universal.
Washington plays Lincoln Rhyme, a forensics expert and best-selling author whose brilliant career was cut short as a result of a terrible accident in a subway tunnel during a crime scene investigation. Paralyzed from the neck down and connected to a battery of machines, he is still technically a cop, periodically assisting on investigations. But mostly he lies on his motorized bed in his well-appointed New York apartment, watching the peregrine falcon perched outside his window. With a doctor friend's help, he is preparing to commit what he euphemistically calls his "final transition."
Rhyme puts those suicidal plans on hold when he's enlisted by his fellow cops to help them with an investigation. A wealthy couple has been abducted by a New York cabbie (his visual trademark is a tiny monkey hanging from a noose on the rear-view mirror), and the husband is found dead -- buried except for his outstretched hand, skinned to the bone and wearing a wedding ring.
The young policewoman who makes this gruesome discovery is gorgeous Amelia Donaghy (Jolie), who reveals her natural penchant for forensics by her quick-thinking preservation of the evidence. She's also more than a little daring, as demonstrated by her single-handedly stopping a train that's about to intrude upon the crime scene. Rhyme, sensing a kindred spirit, enlists her to assist him in the case despite her lack of experience and impending transfer to a desk job.
Soon the traditional cinematic cat-and-mouse game between killer and capturers ensue, with the former leaving a series of clues that seem to have come from the turn of the century. As the police use Rhyme's apartment as a base of operations, Amelia acts as Rhyme's eyes and ears, exploring a series of grisly crime scenes.
But she invariably arrives too late to save the victims, who suffer such horrors as a deadly scalding by steam and being eaten alive by rats -- details of which are not kept from the audience.
Most of the detectives on the case are Rhyme's friendly former colleagues, played in suitably hard-boiled fashion by Ed O'Neill, Mike McGlone and Luis Guzman. But this wouldn't be a cop movie without a conflict between the lead character and his captain; sure enough, Rhyme's boss, Capt. Cheney (Michael Rooker), is unaccountably hostile to his disabled employee and Amelia in a plot angle that becomes wearisome.
Equally tiresome is the relationship between Rhyme and his devoted nurse, Thelma, with the charismatic Queen Latifah reduced to saying things like "Not on my shift", looking concerned and doing crossword puzzles while listening to Rhyme's urgent radio messages to Amelia.
The convoluted plotting culminates in the none-too-credible revelation that the killer is not merely some anonymous wacko but one of the supporting characters, and the climax features one of the more unusual fight scenes in recent memory: between the deranged killer and Rhyme. The fact that his character is paralyzed doesn't prevent Washington from kicking a little ass -- the encounter is both ludicrous and a total hoot. But the main focus of the story concentrates on the growing relationship between Rhyme and his beautiful protege, with the possibility of a romantic relationship not excluded.
Jeremy Iacone's screenplay, adapted from a novel by Jeffery Deaver, is as occasionally clunky and cliched as his previous effort for producer Martin Bergman, "One Tough Cop", but it mostly gets the job done.
Noyce, who demonstrated his acumen for suspense in such works as "Dead Calm" and Harrison Ford's Tom Clancy flicks, wrings the maximum tension from the proceedings, delivering a highly professional and visually handsome production whose pace rarely slackens. Noyce is smart enough to know that his best assets are his stars, in whom he places a great deal of visual emphasis.
Washington delivers his usual charismatic intensity as the immobile Rhyme, and Jolie provides further proof that she definitely has the goods for big-screen stardom.
THE BONE COLLECTOR
Universal Pictures
A Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures presentation
Credits: Director: Phillip Noyce; Screenwriter: Jeremy Iacone; Producers: Martin Bregman, Louis A. Stroller, Michael Bregman; Executive producers: Michael Klawitter, Dan Jinks; Director of photography: Dean Semler; Production designer: Nigel Phelps; Editor: William Hoy; Music: Craig Armstrong. Cast: Lincoln Rhyme: Denzel Washington; Amelia Donaghy: Angelina Jolie; Thelma: Queen Latifah; Capt. Howard Cheney: Michael Rooker; Detective Kenny Solomon: Mike McGlone; Eddie Ortiz: Luis Guzman; Richard Thompson: Leland Orser; Dr. Barry Lehman: John Benjamin Hickey; Steve: Bobby Cannavale; Detective Paulie Sellitto: Ed O'Neill. MPAA rating: R. Color/stereo. Running time -- 120 minutes.
- 8/31/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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