Faces in the Crowd

I have mixed reactions after watching this movie. In some ways, the movie has exceeded my expectations, but then lets it down again and again.

On the positive side, there hasn't been a good whodunit murder mystery in a long time. Taking that into consideration, this movie is a welcome change and even starts of as a good murder mystery. Another welcome change is having Milla Jovovich in a more meaningful role as compared to her heroic association with the "Resident Evil" franchise. As Anna Merchant, Jovovich is a primary school teacher who witnesses a horrific murder after a night out with her friends. Dubbed "Tearjerk Jack" for violating women after killing them and then weeping over their lifeless bodies, the serial killer chases Anna until she falls off a bridge. Two weeks later, Anna wakes up in a hospital with a rare condition known as Prosopagnosia or Face Blindness where her ability to recognize faces is impaired. The disorder becomes an ordeal when she can no longer recognize her friends, the children she teaches and even people close to her like her father. After therapy, Anna realizes that Face Blindness is a serious disorder unless she learns to cope with it. In the process, she gets close to detective Kerrest (Julian McMahon) and learns that the serial killer is still at large. Worse, the killer knows of her condition and is now closing in to finish the job.

Written and directed by Julian Magnat, the concept is almost original and suffices as a thriller. Anna's confusion is actually felt because Magnat uses an average of 3 to 4 actors for each character in the movie. Anna's boyfriend Bryce, played by Michael Shanks, is also played by about 10 other actors. This premise works to some extant by placing the audience in Anna's perspective and each time we see different faces. Prosopagnosia is an actual disorder and portraying it in this movie is a definite tick mark for Magnat. Then it all goes downhill. The rest of the movie becomes so clichéd, it gets to be annoyingly predictable. With most whodunits, the audience is always introduced to the killer, sometimes very early in the plot, before unveiling who the killer is. With this movie, Magnat does the same, but places the killer in easy reach of Anna. So why then should we wait till the end of the movie for the killer to strike? Obviously because the film has to be made with a minimum runtime of 100 minutes! But it doesn't stop there. The ending has to be the mother of all clichés when Anna cannot tell the difference between the hero and the killer because they wear the same clothes. Another negative aspect is the unnecessary romance thrown in. In all of this mess, Anna is romantically inclined to one character, who happens to have the only face she can recognize. Go figure!

For a thriller, Milla Jovovich is not bad as the lead character. No way is she getting anywhere near an Oscar for her performance here, but her portrayal is definitely better than some of her other releases. I can't really say much about the other actors as there are various actors that keep switching each time Anna encounters another character. Since this is Magnat's second foray as director and first as screenwriter, I don't want to be too harsh on the outcome. As a learning curve, if he had paid a little more attention to the plot and it's execution in the final act, this could have been a master thriller.

Watch it if you have to, but on a lazy day. As an alternative, I recommend 1992's "Blink", a similar concept but with a better finish, starring the lovely Madeleine Stowe.

The idea behind this serial killer movie - a female witness to a serial killer who is injured and can't recognize faces, even that of the killer - is a novel one. And the woman's disability does lead to some interesting scenes of her struggling with the disability. But the movie as a whole doesn't quite work. One reason is the budget - while the movie never looks extremely cheap, it's obvious throughout that the entire enterprise was done in a cost-saving manner. The main reasons the movie fails, however, is that the movie both feels very drawn out and the serial killer parts fail to be very interesting or suspenseful compared to what we've seen in other serial killer movies before. Ironically, the movie is the most interesting when it shows the female lead struggling with her disability in day to day life. I honestly feel that if the movie had ditched the whole tired serial killer plot and made a serious movie about the woman's disability that the movie would have been a lot better.

P.S. - Does a movie really need FOURTEEN executive producers?

This was a decent flick. Never heard of this type of brain injury. Learned something new. Has Jovovich been in better? Heck yes!!! I still enjoyed the watch.

Yet another case of the old "good idea, bad execution", this psychological thriller may include some mental analysis but indefinitely lacks thrills. Come on Jovovich! You clearly have talent, but you waste it in low-budget mediocrity. After escaping a serial killer and suffering with concussion, a woman soon wakes up experiencing a rare disorder that disables face recognition. Prosopagnosia, or "face blindness" to us uneducated, essentially results in every person you once knew now becoming a total stranger. The story starts off strong, and presents the diagnosis through fearful eyes thanks to Jovovich. She is, once again, the strongest aspect to this film as she is able to express a variety of emotions whilst looking at a mirror. The method in which director Magnat illustrates "face blindness" is to frequently switch the actors, whilst retaining the voice from the original actor, so that both us and the protagonist are unaware of who the character is. I have problems with this. The voice over for the switched actors never matched their lips, and rapidly grew irritating. The original actors looked bland to begin with, so when they are switched you still have no idea which character they are. This made for a disorientating and disengaging experience, which is why there were no thrills. You are unable to guess who the serial killer is because every character is changing. I understand the story is seen through her perspective, but it does not make for a captivating film. Then we get to the doctors and police officers, who are all useless at their jobs and just plain hideous. Seriously, she is lucky to be alive and they all treat her like she isn't cooperating. Not to mention the horrifically terrible editing and visual effects for the faces. Imposing an actors face to a different body requires talent. There was none on display here. Then there's a forced romance, a convoluted ending and a consistent wave of stale acting. So aside from Jovovich and the concept, this film ironically gets lost in a crowd.

The condition exists, the only thing made up is that cheesy idea that you will meet someone special whose face you will remember, there are different levels of prosopagnosia and if you have it that bad, that is all.

No, you can't recognise people just by their voice, maybe after some time of focusing on it with that intention. My condition is not as bad as hers but I have to make a mental list of things that distinguishes the person from the others, which is not too practical because they are common or can change. At the start is just hair color, beard, glasses, skin color, fat/thin and "does he have glasses?", scars are blessing. The only non measurable thing I've ever use are things like "Something in his eyes makes it seem like he is always sad" (which isn't always true..., so no reliable either).

The measure she uses at some point of the movie is funny but makes sense. After some months I can actually see the differences and not just memorize them, but I'm a lucky one (and don't dare to change your haircut). Until then I have to count the stripes of the zebra.