"The Watcher" is a non-original thriller in the classical sense. It overcomes an overly ambitious director and tired screenwriters to become a fairly good movie.
Joel Campbell (James Spader) is a burnt-out FBI agent who moved to Chicago from Los Angeles, trying to cope with a guilty consciene: He failed to close a serial killer case that took a personal turn. However, his nemesis, David Allen Griffen (Keanu Reeves) has followed Campbell to Chicago where he once again continues his game of cat and mouse.
This time, Griffen is sending pictures of his victims (single young women), giving Campbell 24 hours to locate her before each is killed. This game continues until Griffen picks his ultimate victim, one meant to destroy Campbell.
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At times, however, the suspense is almost destroyed by director Joe Charbanic's strange need to add violent and unlikely chase scenes and explosions to the movie.
Spader plays a burnt-out cop fairly well, but does not seem to fully immerse himself in the role. Reeves, on the other hand, seems to relish his role of the bad guy. But because of a miscalculation on the screenwriters' part, Griffen speaks too much in certain scenes, losing his bad guy charisma.
Other than these two main actors, the supporting cast is easily forgettable, especially Campbell's psychiatrist, Polly (Marisa Tomei). This is a shame considering that writers Darcy Meyers and David Elliot develop a strangely convoluted, implausible and shallow romance between Polly and Campbell, which is crucial to the ending and Griffen's ultimate goal of destroying Campbell. And since Tomei has an Oscar sitting at home, I must once again blame the screenwriters for unconvincing acting, because she could only be expected to do so much with an almost non-existent and ignored role.
"Watcher" wants to be more than a thriller. It tries to comment on the lack of interaction between people and the lack of caring in modern society. In fact, that is the reason why Griffen selects young, lone women as his targets, to prove that people don't notice each other any more. While there are some scenes in which this is ironically obvious, they ultimately lose any deeper meaning.
If there is one redeeming value to the movie, one that really helps the flow of the suspense and the plot, it is the cinematography. Michael Chapman, who has won two Oscars and worked for Martin Scorsese, works his magic and gives the film its strongest attribute - quality camerawork. He helps set the scene in impersonal Chicago and helps develop the suspense through absolutely brilliant shots.
"Watcher" will not be in contention for an Oscar, nor will it go down in history as a classical serial killer thriller like "The Silence of the Lambs," but, all in all, despite its occasional flaws, it does have just enough entertainment value to make it at least worth a shot at watching.
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