Point of Origin

This confused and confusing movie tries to be based both on the real case of the worst serial arsonist in California history, and on a book by John Orr, a former arson investigator for the city of Glendale.

The script is clumsy and ill-formed, and plays a foolish trick on the audience regarding two of the characters, the arsonist and John Orr. Nothing is gained by this particular trick; in fact, a great deal of possible audience involvement is completely sacrificed.

The real case is depicted with some accuracy, but also some pointless fiction is inserted, and a potentially fascinating story is badly undercut.

The director is ordinarily a superlative cinematographer, and there's some good cinematography here, too. But there's also a great deal of silly camera trickery -- there's even a shot looking upward at two people (one a very minor character) from >under the foot< of one of them. The fire scenes are deeply unconvincing, and needn't have been.

One odd touch: two of the real-life arson investigators are depicted in the film, and one of them plays the OTHER one. And the other one also appears. Very complex and almost funny.

John Orr (Ray Liotta) is a veteran arson investigator, who's completely professional at his job and he has an sixth sense for placing the origin of suspecting fires. His loyal partner Keith Lang (John Leguizamo) learns from the best from Orr and Lang has joined the task force in the search of the killer. But some of Orr's colleagues and others thinks that Orr knows too much of these crimes... all too-well. To his friends, family members and colleagues that Orr might be the arsonist.

Directed by Newton Thomas Sigel made an terrific, fast paced thriller that is based loosely on a true story. Liotta and Leguizamo gives strong performances in their roles. This movie has an top supporting cast like Colm Feore, Cliff Curtis, Bai Ling, Illeana Douglas, Ronny Cox, Sophia Bush and Rachel Bilson. This movie was made for TV at HBO Films. Sigel's picture is very stylized and it looks like an theatrical movie as well.

DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) transfer and an strong Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD also includes an fairly interesting running commentary track by the director and cast & crew information. Sigel's film is very entertaining.... he keeps everything tight, over the top and short. Certainly worth seeing. (****/*****).

Well the IMDB crowd didn't seem to think much of it but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel that in many ways this HBO production based on a stranger-than-fiction arson investigation is the best that small screen productions can be. However, beware aspiring filmmakers, it doesn't follow the classic Sid Field story arc.

The movie was directed by one of the finest cinematographers in recent times; just check his IMDB profile-- http://us.imdb.com/Name?Sigel,+Newton+Thomas. I look forward to seeing his future works.

If the story catches your interest, you might want to track down a NOVA special entitled "Hunt for the Serial Arsonist", and compare the screenplay to the facts of the case including interviews with investigator John Orr.

Good story. Starts out strong but weakens along the way.

Once you find out who is setting the fires, there's not much more to keep your interest. Of course it goes back and forth as to who is really the guilty party but..it gets kind of dull.

Much better than most TV and Cable-TV produced movies, with some very nice cinematic stylings.

If you know nothing about the actual events, this will be more enjoyable and more interesting than if you already know the story. There are certain plot points that obscure some of the fire-setting activities and create suspense and drama that won't exist if you already know the story.

Even if you know basically what happened, it's interesting to see the events unfold and how those involved discovered the truth about the multitude of arson fires set around the Glendale and Los Angeles areas.

No spoilers here to ruin it for you, and it is recommended highly by this viewer.