Campbell (James Spader) is a retired agent whose health is now not good, I’m not sure what he has but he needs a lot of medicines, and he goes regularly to see a therapist, Polly (Marisa Tomei). He talks about a series of murders, about a killer (Keanu Reeves) that watches his designated victim for a long time making detailed schedules and knowing exactly when he can find her alone, then he gets inside her house waiting, then he tortures her and kills her. He was after him in LA and doesn’t want to be on the case again, but then he discovers that pictures of the victims have been sent to him before they died, and he never noticed, he never opened his FedEx letters...
He says “what if the next picture to arrive was of your daughter, would you really want me to be the one looking for her?” and she nods and says “yes, yes I would”.
The killer even calls Campbell on the phone “hi, it’s me!”; he moved to Chicago because he didn’t like the other cop in LA and he’d rather ‘play’ with him, so he sends him pictures saying he has one day to save the next woman. Campbell almost caught him once
He sends the next picture in a ‘miss you’ card and they try a whole day to trace her - looking at pictures, screens, etc - but they never raise their eyes to see that she was right there in front of them :-/ when they find the shop where the picture was taken she’s at home already, and of course he’s there waiting for her. Campbell calls her but she’s dead and He answers instead. Campbell knows He’s probably watching him at any time so while he’s eating with a colleague he goes out searching the street for him and finds him when a car suddenly pulls away but he still doesn’t see his face, so he can’t recognize him when they happen to be together in the elevator next day. He went to spy the name of his therapist. The next picture is of a girl asking money on the street.. her mother sees the picture on tv and calls them, and they sort of trace her zone but she lives on the street so it’s hard to find her. He goes to her but she’s smart enough to take her chance and hit him with a radio and run. Unfortunately he gets to her and kills her anyway, they are so close but also too late. Campbell sees him running away - how come? did he bring her back to kill her? they had been running away from that spot...
He steals a car, the police go after him, He causes the death of three cops in an explosion.
Campbell is hospitalized because of something I’m not sure of, but his colleagues found him on the floor in his house. He steals Polly’s tapes on Campbell.
The next picture is of a woman Campbell saved in LA - then he went after him but the house caught fire and he had to stop and go back to try and save her; she died though, they both know it, so Campbell goes to her grave and they meet face to face, he’s there waiting for him. Campbell now recognizes him as the man in the elevator.
He offers Campbell a beer as if they were friends. That woman Lisa was married but Campbell had an affair with her and when she died and was buried in Chicago he moved here to be near her. He tells him that he has Polly so Campbell can’t shoot him; instead he gives him his gun asking to see her, to see she’s alive, and then they’ll talk, and He agrees. Campbell drives and they talk; Campbell asks him what does he needs so he can exchange it for Polly, but He says “what I need is you”. Campbell calls the other cop so that when he answers he hears them talking and understands “he’s got Campbell, trace it!”.
He says “you’re the only one who knew me”; as soon as Campbell sees Polly He knocks him out. The other cops traced the call and are coming. Both Polly and Campbell are tied up now, and He dances around in a sort of slow motion like in the first scene at the beginning, and I don’t know maybe it’s supposed to be cool but to me it looked ridiculous.
He shoots Campbell in a leg and tells him to say thank you for coming here and saving him from his pathetic life, but Cameron says “you’re my job!” and He gets angry and starts strangling Polly so Campbell finally changes it to a ‘thank you’ and He stops.
Campbell manages to hit him in the neck but a candle falls setting the place on fire; don’t cops realize that there’s a fire inside? and that bursting down the door they give it oxygen? Anyway, big fire, cops hurt, Campbell and Polly out of the window and into water, He jumps too but he’s dead, burned. The end. That seemed a bit too easy, wasn’t it? Just like that, they’re barely scratched...
Just a few words before the credits, saying that it’s never easy to catch one and you can just hope that they make mistakes and be there when they do, “time’s up”. Credits..
:-/
I read Keanu’s character was called Griffin; Ernie Hudson played Ibby.
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