Faces in the Crowd

Usually, I look for Horror films to watch (and later review), simply because I'm a huge Horror fan. However, many great Horror films have many Thriller features in them especially the rush and guessing work the audience goes through, then finally the twist towards the end.

Faces in the crowd is an excellent Detective Thriller / Whodunit, using a very original and genius idea. A serial killer is terrorizing the state, and the sole eye witness who has seen him in the act - suffers head trauma and loses the ability to differentiate or remember faces. The careful and very clever cinematography portrayed the condition of "face blindness" in a very relatable way, making the audience almost go through the same experience as the protagonist.

The script was very good in my opinion, some of the lines were truly magnificent(especially those of the deaf Psychiatrist, trying to explain to the face-blind protagonist how to remember faces the same way a deaf person remembers music). The twist towards the end, however, could have been better, and the ending felt rather anticlimactic. That was very unfortunate, as this film had the potential to be one of the best.

All in all, I had a great time watching Faces in the Crowd, one of the best story ideas I've ever seen! Trying to remain objective I rate it 7, but don't miss out on it!

OK, the idea of the movie was quite lovely, didn't expect it, never seen it before therefore I'll have to start with some praises but end it with less enthusiasm sadly. The movie flows nicely, we learn more about Anna's condition, some tension building up, we start to suspect one or the other and then, well it becomes quite clear who the killer is. And from that point on, of course, things aren't that interesting anymore considering the fact that the thrill kinda lost its touch. Nevertheless, overall, it is a nice breath of fresh air really, trust me you can do a whole lot worse than this one, just keep in mind it's not really a horror, more of a thriller with some horror elements incorporated but few at number.

Also, if you liked it, and you probably will, you MUST try "Julia's Eyes"! You can call these 2 movies, step sisters to be honest, in my opinion, the Spanish one wins tho!

So, don't waste more time, try it out, try both of them out, nice adder to the gender!

Yet another case of the old "good idea, bad execution", this psychological thriller may include some mental analysis but indefinitely lacks thrills. Come on Jovovich! You clearly have talent, but you waste it in low-budget mediocrity. After escaping a serial killer and suffering with concussion, a woman soon wakes up experiencing a rare disorder that disables face recognition. Prosopagnosia, or "face blindness" to us uneducated, essentially results in every person you once knew now becoming a total stranger. The story starts off strong, and presents the diagnosis through fearful eyes thanks to Jovovich. She is, once again, the strongest aspect to this film as she is able to express a variety of emotions whilst looking at a mirror. The method in which director Magnat illustrates "face blindness" is to frequently switch the actors, whilst retaining the voice from the original actor, so that both us and the protagonist are unaware of who the character is. I have problems with this. The voice over for the switched actors never matched their lips, and rapidly grew irritating. The original actors looked bland to begin with, so when they are switched you still have no idea which character they are. This made for a disorientating and disengaging experience, which is why there were no thrills. You are unable to guess who the serial killer is because every character is changing. I understand the story is seen through her perspective, but it does not make for a captivating film. Then we get to the doctors and police officers, who are all useless at their jobs and just plain hideous. Seriously, she is lucky to be alive and they all treat her like she isn't cooperating. Not to mention the horrifically terrible editing and visual effects for the faces. Imposing an actors face to a different body requires talent. There was none on display here. Then there's a forced romance, a convoluted ending and a consistent wave of stale acting. So aside from Jovovich and the concept, this film ironically gets lost in a crowd.

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.

"He's not stupid enough to go after the one person who can recognize him, right?" After a night of drinking with her friends Anna (Jovovich)decides to walk home alone. While walking she sees a murder take place and is attacked by the "Tear-Jerked Jack" serial killer. After falling off a bridge she wakes up as the lone survivor. She also wakes up with a disease called face-blindness, a condition which affects you from recognizing any faces...even your own. Lately it seems like the lower budget movies are much better then the big blockbusters. This one is no exception. While this movie started to repeat itself to the point of being annoying it was still tense and keeps you interested and watching through out. Jovovich is becoming a very good actress and she continues to build upon what she did in "Stone". A pretty original idea that if it weren't for the repetition of the problem would have been an excellent movie. That said even with the repeating this is still a very good movie that is very much worth seeing. Overall, a surprisingly good and tense thriller that deserves more of an audience that it will get. I give it a B+.

Would I watch again? - I might, just to see if I can catch the clues.