Taking Lives (2004)

An FBI profiler is called in by French Canadian police to catch a serial killer who takes on the identity of each new victim.

Director:

D.J. Caruso

Writers:

Michael Pye (novel), Jon Bokenkamp (screen story)

Stars:

Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Angelina Jolie	...	Illeana
Ethan Hawke	...	Costa
Kiefer Sutherland	...	Hart
Gena Rowlands	...	Mrs. Asher
Olivier Martinez	...	Paquette
Tchéky Karyo	...	Leclair
Jean-Hugues Anglade	...	Duval
Paul Dano	...	Young Asher
Justin Chatwin	...	Matt Soulsby
André Lacoste	...	Cashier
Billy Two Rivers	...	Car Salesman
Richard Lemire	...	Québec City Cop
Julien Poulin	...	Québec City Inspector
Marie-Josée Croze	...	Medical Examiner
Christian Tessier	...	Interrogation Officer

Storyline

The film starts in the early 1980s. Young Martin Asher took a bus for Canada. He meets another teen on the bus, Matt Soulsby. When the bus broke down they decided to rent a car and drive to Seattle. On the road the car gets a flat tire, and Matt starts changing the tire. Martin comments on how he and Matt are about the same height, and in that moment he quickly pushes Matt in the way of an oncoming truck causing a huge accident where Matt and the driver both die. He took Matt's guitar and left singing like Matt did. Twenty years later, an FBI profiler, Illeana Scott comes to Canada to help hunt down the now serial killer Martin Asher who killed multiple men and lived by their identities. Martin's mother claims that she saw Martin in Quebec city and she tells the police that Martin is evil. The police also has an eyewitness James Costa who saw Asher kill his last victim...

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | female agent | fake identity | passionate sex | stolen identity | 

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Taglines:

He Would Kill To Be You.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence including disturbing images, language and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros [France] Warner Bros.

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

19 March 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Elude võtmine

Filming Locations:

Gare Windsor, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$45,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$11,458,465, 21 March 2004, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$32,682,342

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$65,470,529

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.,Village Roadshow Pictures,Atmosphere Entertainment MM

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min 109 min (unrated)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The source novel's character equivalent to Illeana is James Costa, a British museum curator. Martin Asher's analog is Martin Arkenhout, a native of Holland. The prime settings of the novel are England and Portugal.

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Goofs

One of the Montreal police officers reassures Costa that the serial killer "won't get within 50 yards of you". While Canada is officially metric, its proximity to the U.S. as well as stubbornness among older generations means that in several instances old imperial measurements are still used. Many people still use feet and inches instead of meters for height, and many Canadians still refer to yards instead of meters for distance.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Cashier: Where are you going?

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Alternate Versions

Available in both its R-rated theatrical version (103 min.) and in an unrated director's cut (109 min.).

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Connections

Featured in Crime Lab: A 'Taking Lives' (2004)

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Soundtracks

Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Written by Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, Topper Headon (uncredited) and Paul Simonon (uncredited)
Performed by The Clash
Courtesy of Epic Records/Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Ltd.
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

A compendium of serial killer movie clichés,but quite fun for all that

Imagine Seven,The Bone Collector,Kiss The Girls,Red Dragon and a load of similar movies all rolled into one,and you might get something like Taking Lives. It's quite a stylish and sometimes exciting movie,it's just almost completely lacking in originality. It's also pretty obvious who the killer is early on,so the film's plot has to take some very silly twists and turns to try to hide this.

Nevertheless,there is much that is good,perhaps it was realised that the script was mediocre and everybody tried hard to try to overcome this. Director David T. Caruso gives the film a very stylish feel,with some interesting use of camera angles and colour-check out the opening scene,in which the colour has been altered in some way to make it look somewhat dreamlike. A brief but exciting car chase and a murder in a lift are very well staged and edited. Angelina Jolie turns her unbelievable role into something approaching good,and Ethan Hawke almost matches her,especially near the end. Philip Glass's score is terrifically menacing,and the film is well paced,the first half slow but increasingly suspenseful and uneasy,the second half fast and full of action. There is also one 'jump' which really works well,I won't describe it but think of the hand coming out of the grave in Carrie...... The climax is over a little quickly,and gives us a supposed plot twist which is than proved to be fake. It would have been a lot more interesting if said plot twist was real.

Taking Lives never really delves into the twisted minds of it's two main protagonists nor truly gives a sense of evil as,for instance Seven did. It's one of those films that always seems on the verge of being really disturbing or thrilling and never gets there. Nevertheless,if you like serial killer movies,you're probably like this one,even if you will probably be able to guess much of the plot right from the beginning.