Faces in the Crowd (2011)

A horror-thriller centered on a woman living with "face-blindness" after surviving a serial killer's attack. As she lives with her condition, one in which facial features change each time she loses sight of them, the killer closes in.

Director:

Julien Magnat

Writers:

Julien Magnat (original screenplay by), Agnès Caffin (with the participation of),

Stars:

Milla Jovovich, Julian McMahon, David Atrakchi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Milla Jovovich	...	Anna Marchant
Julian McMahon	...	Sam Kerrest
David Atrakchi	...	Lanyon / Tearjerk Jack
Michael Shanks	...	Bryce
Marianne Faithfull	...	Dr. Langenkamp
Sarah Wayne Callies	...	Francine
Valentina Vargas	...	Nina
Kate Yacula	...	Anna #2 - in hospital mirror
Apollonia Vanova	...	Anna #4 - in make-up mirror
Nels Lennarson	...	Kerrest # 2
Chris Kalhoon	...	Kerrest # 3
Aaron Hughes	...	Man #1 / Man # 2
Aaron Grain	...	Lanyon # 2
Michael James	...	Lanyon #3
Jason Wishnowski	...	Lanyon # 4

Storyline

The elementary school teacher Anna Marchant lives with her boyfriend Bryce in a nice apartment and every now and then she meets her best friends Francine and Nina to drink and talk. When Anna is crossing a bridge to meet Bryce, she sees an infamous serial-killer killing a woman. Anna runs but she is attacked by the killer and she falls off the bridge and hits her head. Anna stays in coma for a week and when she awakes, she learns that she has brain damage followed by Prosopagnosia, a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize other objects may be relatively intact. The police detective Sam Kerrest unsuccessfully tries to force Anna to remember the face of the serial-killer. Now the serial-killer knows that Anna has seen his face, but she is incapable of even recognizing Bryce and her close friends.

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Plot Keywords:

face | friend | recognize | bridge | disorder | 

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Taglines:

She saw the killer's face, but it keeps changing...

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing violent content and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA France Canada UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 2011 (Turkey)

Also Known As:

Faces

Filming Locations:

Esplanade Riel pedestrian bridge, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Minds Eye Entertainment, Frantic Films Live Action Productions, Radar Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The specialist Anna sees to help her cope with her disease is H. Langenkamp - a reference to Heather Langenkamp, the actress who played the would-be victim of fellow razor-blade killer Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

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Goofs

Anna checks her Facebook account where her birthday is shown as Jan 22nd. However, on a couple of occasions, she is shown to be checking her newspaper horoscope under the 'Taurus' section. A person born on Jan 22nd is an Aquarian.

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Connections

References Columbo (1971)

User Reviews

Think about the casting while you watch

We don't get to watch many thrillers lately so I was hopeful about this movie. It was actually satisfactory enough, the changing faces of the supporting cast was fun and sufficient to emphasize with Milla's character. If this was a bigger budget movie, it would be delightful to have some of these faces by more recognizable character actors depending on the situation and her disposition towards them. As it was, the film was more like a procession of many extras (note the collaboration of 4-5 studios). For some weird reason I expected and hoped she would at some point see Philip Seymour Hoffman as her husband, Luiz Guzman as the cop, Eric Roberts as Lanyon, but of course that didn't happen :) I agree with others that the love affair looked superficial and lacking chemistry, but just think (after watching the film) how it would be elevated by a clever and ambitious casting of supporting actors.

On the downside, the suspense level was not really high and the film never came close to being chilling. It could have been a much more captivating thriller. Sometimes the story of the killer was almost a sub-plot and it was her prognosis that was at the forefront, I guess Milla preferred it that way for having more opportunity to display her serious acting skills. My alternative would be to have more scenes with Lanyon and also more innovative stalking by the Lurker. That way the audience would engage better in making guesses about the killer's identity and could actually still be amazed by a clever twist at the end.

Here is a diversion about the leading actor (well, the movie became rather dull enough times to give me an opportunity to amuse myself by reflecting on her career). I think Milla is cleverly changing gear, she is very positively stuck in my mind with the Fifth Element (that was when Bruce Willis was a dashing action star) and I noted her acting in the Million Dollar Hotel as well as her portrayal of Jean Darc. When you come to think of it, she has a remarkably diverse and rich filmography with leading roles in major films while she was very young. Overall however, her last ten years went largely unnoticed by people who are not into resident evil, so now she has the chance to make a re-entry as a fresh face who happens to have a lot of acting experience. In the next few years she could aptly make her mark as the lead actress of noirs and thrillers (a role played by Kim Basinger and Michelle Pheiffer in the last decade).

To sum up, an entertaining and somewhat original movie which unfortunately is not intellectually challenging. Watch it, but with realistic expectations.