To Catch a Killer Fails to Catch Our Attention
It’s been a while since we’ve been graced with a good ol’ fashioned cat-and-mouse detective flick. Perhaps that’s because the movie market has been slowly squeezing out original IP in favor of Marvel franchises and true crime, or because filmmakers are (understandably) afraid to cower in the shadows of crime thriller staples such as The Silence of the Lambs and Seven.
Whatever the reason for this drought, To Catch a Killer positions itself as a manhunt feature intent on saving the day. It has all the right pieces: A young misfit cop, a twisted serial killer, two equally killer lead actors. It’s just missing two crucial pieces: Suspense and coherence.
Directed by Argentine filmmaker Damián Szifron in his English-language debut, To Catch a Killer follows Eleanor (Shailene Woodley), a young cop with an ambiguously troubled past who gets pulled into a ticking time bomb serial killer investigation. How does she, a rookie, snag such a coveted position, you might ask? Well, because a higher-up overhears her make a poignant metaphor likening killing to swatting mosquitoes. (That’s how the FBI hiring process works, right?) From that point onward, she and no-bullshit FBI agent Geoffrey Lammark (the wonderful Ben Mendelsohn) race against the clock to track down this mosquito-swatter by any means possible.
Here’s the part where I regretfully inform you that this promising premise quickly gives way to disappointment. For the majority of its two-hour runtime, To Catch a Killer vacillates between scenes during which Eleanor and Geoffrey repeatedly and grimly emphasize how important it is that they catch this killer, and tonally confused action sequences that are better suited for an entry into the Bourne franchise than a slow-burn psychological thriller.
Indeed, To Catch a Killer doesn’t quite seem to understand what it wants to be. Some of the slower, dialogue-focused scenes briefly brush against greatness—discussions of criminal psychology often fleetingly recall The Silence of the Lambs—but then one of the characters will quote Kurt Cobain like it’s a mic-drop moment (seriously), or a side character will shout “This guy is going to kill everybody!” and all potential will float away like dust in the wind.