Emmett's Mark

Interesting thriller for first-time director Keith Snyder about a young police officer who suddenly is informed he is terminally ill. Unusual first-rate performances and absorbing atmosphere in a debutante filmmaker. An intelligent film.

Just saw this film at its world premiere in Philadelphia. I thought it was beautifully shot (wait till you see the shot of Roth in the closet), nicely directed (that closet shot again), and impressively acted (even Scott Wolf) but the story seemed a little unfocused, even cliched at times. There was a subplot involving a murder investigation that was never given the attention it should have received. And there is a certain extremely cliche plot-twist about midway through the film that should have been eliminated in the writing stages. On the other hand, both Wolf's and Roth's characters were well-written, each receiving a nice amount of screentime to showcase their characters' depth. Overall, this was a solid, above average drama/thriller. And with today's lack of quality films, that's a huge compliment.

Screw what anyone says about movies where everything is not about action, 'cause this is a very very good film. I don't know the first thing about what a good cameraman is supposed to do or what good special effects are (if there even are in this one), but I look at the big picture and that must count for something. The acting is good, natural, down to earth, the atmosphere is a bit cold, distant and autistic. But that made the whole movie worth watching it, I thought, and the absence (finally!) of any wild romance or crazy love made it a big Hansaplast on a bleeding wound. Really. If you have lost hope in Hollywood, see this.

Scott Wolf plays a young detective called Emmett Young, who's said to have one week to live.He hires someone to kill him.When he wants to cancel the order, it's not so easily done.Emmett's Mark (2002) is a fine thriller drama that manages to keep the suspense on from the beginning till the end.Scott Wolf, who played Bailey Salinger in Party of Five, is very good in the lead.Gabriel Byrne, who plays the guy after him, is very good also.Other actors I could mention are Khandi Alexander and Tim Roth.Everybody's great in the movie.The plot is, I think, something unique.You don't see movies like this every day.Sure it's not a masterpiece and soon to have a classic status, but who cares.It's great entertainment.I think this movie is way underrated and you should give it a chance.All of you.

This movie is about killing internal motivation, not about killing Emmett Young. The antagonist challenges internal motivation (and shows his Hopelessness) The hero embraces boundless ambition (and shows his Passion)

On Becoming a Detective: Requires internal motivation, embracing detective work, ambition, split second deliberation. This movie is great. It is not superb, but it is great! Once again I was lucky that I bought this at the .99c store, but don't be fooled - it is not just the price talking. I almost didn't buy it, because the cover didn't look very promising, neither did the title. This is just to show you not the judge the movie by the cover. This movie is not about "Killing Emmett Young," this movie is about becoming an exceptional detective. This is detective, crime genre, which tends to be polluted with tons of rotten produce. Because they are fairly inexpensive to make, so the return on investment can be nice, but you really need a strong plot twist and great directing to break through. This movie might not hold up on one part of the plot premise - the actual killing of Emmett (we are still left asking the old fashioned :why" and also it looks way to fabricated and unreal to actually be true), but it has great directing style to compensate for it (everything is darkish, grayish like an October Sunday night late afternoon feeling). This movie, coming from a small production company, is a breeze of fresh air. It is not like "Seven" or "Silence of the Lambs" but the detective work and the acting is nearly to the same level. If we must compare the levels, then this will be a match of the highly acclaimed Al Pacino's "Insomnia." I just love it when I see a dedicated detective, being new to the job, trying to impress everybody, and taking his job very seriously. Anywhere in life, the best results come from that state of mind. What is even more interesting, and what makes this movie to stand out, is the choice that Young has to make - should he try to save his own life, or the life of the next victim? Luckily I don't have to make that choice at my job, even though sometimes it comes pretty close (metaphorically speaking). Also I love to see in a movie the small human errors that can indirectly lead to someone's death. Trying to expose that is always difficult, because the very same people that make those mistakes, will be watching this movie, and still not realize what they are doing. I like the message that this movie sends out: persistence will break resistance - think outside the box and always stay motivated. 50% of any work is showing up on time, the other 50% is being able to stay at work until the job is done. And this movie gets the job done for me. I give it 6.5 stars out of 10.