The Bone Collector *** (1999, Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, Queen Latifah) – Classic Movie Review 973

Critics were sent a bag of phony blood as their invitation to this dark Se7en-style serial killer action thriller – an apt image for a movie that manages most of the snap and crackle but less of the style and conviction of that 1995 classic.

Despite screenwriter Jeremy Iacone’s obvious problems in adapting Jeffrey Deaver’s bestseller, director Phillip Noyce’s 1999 film motors smoothly on Denzel Washington’s stalwart turn as Lincoln Rhyme. He’s a bedbound quadriplegic ex-police detective, who now writes books on crime-scene forensics and recruits beat cop Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie) to help him track down a serial killer abducting people in a taxi and leaving them to die in the nastiest possible situations.

Thanks to cinematographer Dean Semler, the snazzy visuals are the other main ace in the hand of a slick and serviceable, often scary mystery. With Washington so physically restricted, the classy Jolie enjoys best role in a movie that’s well crafted by director Noyce, with moody photography by Semler and a first-rate production by set designer Nigel Phelps.

Queen Latifah (as nurse Thelma), Michael Rooker (as Captain Howard Cheney), Luis Guzman, Ed O’Neill (as Detective Paulie Sellitto), Mike McGlone (as Detective Kenny Solomon), Leland Orser, John Benjamin Hickey (as Dr Barry Lehman) and Bobby Cannavale (as Amelia’s boyfriend) bolster up the cast of interesting characters nicely.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 973

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