The Bone Collector Film Review

You just have to set aside how totally absurd this serial killer film is and pretend that it makes perfect sense. If you can do that, this is fairly tense and involving with good performances from Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie and a solid cast of character actors. If you can't, you are going to spend much of the film going but . but . but. There are so many serial killer movies out there that I figure at least 10% of us are one of them. Maybe not yet, but someday. So you have to put a little pizzazz into them to make them standout. Denzel was a big star so that it is plus but let's make him a quadriplegic who has to solve the case from his bed. And let's make the killings so absurdly complicated that only a genius could figure it out. Fortunately, Denzel's character is and he has the help of a gutsy female cop who becomes his protégé. Let's just go with it. I mean, why not?

In the opening scene Lincoln Rhyme (Denzel) gets paralyzed in an accident on duty and spends the next four years in his bed with his nurse (Queen Latifah) looking after him. He wants to die and has arranged with a friend to kill him in a few days. His old cop buddies (Ed O'Neill, Luis Guzman, Michael McGlone) come for his advice on a killing. Officer Donaghy (Angelina) came across a hand with a finger cut off pointing out of the ground. The dead person was part of a couple who got into a cab at JFK and were locked into their cab. Remind me that taking cabs in NYC is now out. Rhyme is so impressed with how she secured the area, that he asks for her to be part of the team. His eyes and ears on the scene. Because there is never just one. Serial killing is like potato chips.

The killer who we never see till the end is leaving obscure clues on purpose. Old newspaper clippings, an 19th century screw, asbestos, pieces of a paper that form pieces of a puzzle at each murder scene. He is challenging the cops but hell none of the cops ever realize these are clues. Except Rhyme. He puts them together faster than Sherlock Holmes on cocaine. And that is the point. Only Rhyme can solve this. But what are the chances that a paralyzed man no longer on the force will be brought in and see these clues? Well, that is why it is a movie. Angelina is fine in this, not trying to be glamorous till the final shot in a red dress. But she wasn't a star yet and it is surprising that she got the role and credit right under Denzel. Her next film Girl, Interrupted and then Lara Croft was to make her a star.