CINEMA: Untraceable

The latest entry to the FBI/serial killer psychological thriller genre introduces a new twist – cyberspace. Here our Clarice Starling is Officer Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) who, with her assistant Griffin (Colin Hanks), is trawling through the internet looking for and closing down paedophile and terrorist sites. But then they are deliberately sent the link to a new site they can’t close down, and on it an unseen killer is slaughtering his victims live.

The catch is the more people who log onto the site, the more likely it is the victim will die in awful pain. With the help of a sympathetic detective (Billy Burke) Marsh must use every IT trick in the book to find her killer before he starts broadcasting again.

 

From the start the plot of the film is meticulously set up so even if you’re a Luddite you’ll understand what is happening, but more impressive than the technical attention to detail is the human element of the film. Diane Lane always brings masses of sympathy to her characters and has such an expressive face, the way she looks is almost as important as what she is saying. Hanks is delightful as the slightly nerdy but endlessly resourceful Griffin and when the killer is finally unmasked, he’s not some grotesque caricature but seems innocuous –which makes his actions even more sinister.

We get lots of FBI-centred films, but Untraceable is a cut above with a palpable sense of tension and fear about it and a dramatic climax that really is fingernail-chewingly good.        Dee Pilgrim