The film begins and sets up a rather clichéd scenerio. A beaten down detective whose last case grilled him to the bone ending in the death of the suspect who may or may not have actually been the killer, is put on a case that might be a copycat based on those past murders or perhaps the real murder who had eluded him all those years ago. The criminal leaves personal messages and clues for this detective played by Willem DaFoe letting him know that this time… it’s personal! (cue sinister music please)

Despite the fact that Willem is fantastic and completely believable in the part, for some reason it just never hits home for me. I keep thinking to myself that the gang over at SVU would have had this wrapped up and finished in half the time. I think I’ve just become desensitized to this particular storyline.

Our buddy Scott Speedman is once again given way too little to work with. This guy can really act! I swear. Just watch The 24th Day and you’ll see what I mean. He can play deep, layered characters if they are given to him. Here, he does his best to put something new into the rookie detective who knows something’s wrong but can’t quiet put his finger on it. There’s just not much to go on unfortunately.

The film is shot entirely on location in New York which is a nice bonus so the setting is completely there, there was just sadly very little happening.

I would still sit down and watch this film again and give it another shot, but on first viewing it just didn’t really hit me the way I was hoping it would.

Movie Grade: C+

Synopsis:
A psychological thriller based on the concept of anamorphosis, a painting technique that manipulates the laws of perspective to create two competing images on a single canvas.