Suspect Zero (2004)

Suspect Zero (2004) was not very good! Not to be confused with Patient Zero (2018), which is a zombie film.

FBI agent Thomas Mackelway investigates heinous crimes. The killer contacts him and challenges him. He leads him on a macabre chase where every corpse is a clue and reality overtakes imagination…
This feature film has some very good ideas and is only very well realised on the atmospheric level, but not on the rest, unfortunately, and the story of the investigation is a little too lame to be more than sympathetic.

It’s frustrating enough when a film is bad, but when on top of that the director wants to fart higher than his bum, it’s downright infuriating. The plot quickly becomes incomprehensible, cluttered with parapsychological nonsense, and remains so right up to the end.

But I’m not going to shoot it down completely! I’m not going to say ‘My God, this film sucks! Another completely superfluous film, keep your hands and eyes off it!!!’ But let’s face it, there’s not a minute of suspense to be seen! The plot is also boring and the acting isn’t exactly stunning either….

I even got to the point of wondering whether Carrie-Anne Moss was really a good actress or whether she was just pretty and therefore fully appreciated for her beauty. She’s never impressed me and I think she should only play emotionless goth girls. In any case, here she does nothing but show us her pretty face. What a disaster! However, I’m still going to keep seeing films with her. And who knows? Maybe I’ll be blown away one day and she’ll become my favourite actress. But I highly doubt it!

Aaron Eckhart looks more like a criminal here than an FBI agent!
An actor I like, but not in my top ten.

As for Ben Kingsley, he’s always excellent, but in so few good films. What’s more, he could have done with better direction. Still, I was particularly pleased to see him in this role. It’s a shame that the film doesn’t live up to his standards, once again. Still a must-see for all his fans, I suppose.

I thought this film was going to be exciting and that I was going to love it. On paper: interesting subject, good actors with good performances. But the reality is far from it!

There’s nothing extraordinary about the film that doesn’t already exist in one form or another, but the talent for seeing things from an original point of view makes this film something special, despite everything. So I’m not going to say something like ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a turnip like this’!
But it’s really the kind of film that could have sunk the serial-killer genre into the worst kind of delirium. Surely one of the worst films of the genre in the 2000s. It helped to slightly bury the genre, that’s for sure, but fortunately there’s a great breath of fresh air that has returned and is still going strong.

If I had to compare this film to David Fincher, I’d say it’s a long way from Seven (1995), a little closer to Zodiac (2007) but still inferior.

The finale is lamentable and the plot dull. Visually, it’s not aesthetically pleasing. The image is hideous, the editing chaotic, there’s no humour, no strong scenes, it’s all as flat as a dab. An obvious lack of talent behind the camera. Honest in its first hour, it completely falls apart in its final third.

A disappointing thriller that had potential and feels like Usual Suspects (1995), but doesn’t have the capacity. It’s long, slow and not captivating at all. The pacing is really bad. Most of the characters are unconvincing. And you know what’s the most unbearable? That red filter between each scene as if to show that the killer ‘sees everything’.

As I said at the start, ‘Suspect Zero’ has some very good ideas and is well realised in terms of atmosphere alone, but the story is a little too lame.