The Bone Collector (1999)

Denzel Washington plays a quadriplegic homicide detective. He and his female partner track down a serial killer.

Director:

Phillip Noyce

Writers:

Jeffery Deaver (book), Jeremy Iacone (screenplay)

Stars:

Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, Queen Latifah

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Denzel Washington	...	Lincoln Rhyme
Angelina Jolie	...	Amelia Donaghy
Queen Latifah	...	Thelma
Michael Rooker	...	Captain Howard Cheney
Michael McGlone	...	Detective Kenny Solomon (as Mike McGlone)
Luis Guzmán	...	Eddie Ortiz (as Luis Guzman)
Leland Orser	...	Richard Thompson
John Benjamin Hickey	...	Dr. Barry Lehman
Bobby Cannavale	...	Amelia's Boyfriend
Ed O'Neill	...	Detective Paulie Sellitto
Richard Zeman	...	Lieutenant Carl Hanson
Olivia Birkelund	...	Lindsay Rubin
Gary Swanson	...	Alan Rubin
James Bulleit	...	Train Engineer (as Jim Bulleit)
Frank Fontaine	...	Grandfather

Storyline

Quadripeligic ex-cop Lincoln Rhyme was looking forward to his assisted suicide when he got the news: some sicko was abducting people in a taxi and leaving them to die in particularly sadistic ways. With time counting down between each abduction and possible death, Rhyme recruits rather-unwilling Amelia Donaghy, haunted by her cop father's suicide and thinking she's next, into working the crime scenes to track down the killer.

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | suicide | police | quadriplegic | taxi | 

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Taglines:

Two cops on the trail of a brutal killer. They must see as one, they must act as one, they must think as one, before the next victim falls.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violent content including grisly images, and for language

Details

Official Sites:

Universal

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 November 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

El coleccionista de huesos

Filming Locations:

380 Lafayette Street, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$48,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£816,104 (UK) (14 January 2000)

Gross:

$66,488,090 (USA) (3 March 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

DTS SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In Jeffery Deaver's novel Queen Latifah's character Thelma was actually a man named Thom.

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Goofs

By shooting and killing a rat, Amelia has contaminated the crime scene that she was sent to investigate.

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Quotes

Lincoln Rhyme: Destiny is what we make it

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Connections

Referenced in Juno (2007)

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Soundtracks

"McKenzie"
Written by Craig Armstrong, Marius De Vries
Performed by Craig Armstrong
Courtesy of Virgin Records Limited/Melankolic

User Reviews

Dark and tense, but ultimately lazy story telling

When NYPD cop Amelia Donaghy uncovers a mutilated corpse she shows a natural eye for detail and preserving crime scenes. When the killer turns out to be a serial killer leaving clues to his next crime, NYPD turn to the paralysed ex-forensics cop, Rhyme to help them piece together the clues. With Rhymes bedridden, Donaghy becomes his eyes, ears and legs as she walks the scenes under his guidance to uncover the trail.

This is a star vehicle - two Oscar winners and some good supporting actors (Luis Guzman, Michael Rooker to name two). However the plot is below the Washington and Jolie. It is the old "killer taunting cops to catch him" chestnut. It is slightly spiced up by the use of forensics etc and watching Washington putting together the logical clues is quite fun - mainly because you get the feeling that you're right there with him and that it all makes sense. However most of it doesn't makes sense, a lot of the forensics is bull and relies of coincidence or Washington dragging facts from the back of his head. This is a shame because it feels like the film is just being lazy at times and is cheating us out of logic. This laziness feeds right through to the ending - if you thought that the Scream films were lazy and stupid wait till you see the stupid ending to this! Up till this the film does have plenty of horrible scenes and lots of tense bits with Jolie walking round in the dark with the killer potentially just round the corner.

Jolie is good and deals with her character well - despite the fact that a beat cop would never just be able to become a crime scene officer on the whim of an ex-cop. Washington deals well with his character being paralysed for the whole film but does get a bit silly at the end where he fights the killer with just his head! Support is fine - but Guzman is not as good as he usually is.

Overall this is a B movie that got an A movie budget. The film is dark and tense but ultimately a bit lazy and blows it totally with a stupid lazy conclusion.