Thursday, September 29, 2011

THE RIVER MURDERS: PARTNERS IN CRIME

A murderer is stalking the streets of a town in the Pacific Northwest. The women he’s been killing have a distinct pattern to them and the clues he leaves behind don’t let the police know who he is, but they do realize he is a twisted individual. Each victim has their wedding ring or a piece of jewelry inserted into their vaginal area.

Ray Liotta stars as Jack Vernon one of the detectives called in on the first case. Jack immediately removes himself from the start when he recognizes the first victim. It was a woman he dated some years back and the location of the body is where they had sex the first time. This moves him to the top of the suspect list.

Told to stay off the case he of course ignores those instructions and begins looking for clues. When a second body turns up, another woman from his past that Jack slept with, the FBI arrives in the form of agent Vuckovich (Christian Slater), a smart mouthed agent who rubs Jack the wrong way and is constantly being told to back off by Jack’s boss Capt. Langley (Ving Rhames). Vuckovich demands that Jack give him a list of all the women he’s slept with. The list of 100 names stuns him, but then Jack was free and single for years until he got married.

Jack’s marriage is doing great. His wife Ana (Gisele Fraga) is a chef who adores her husband. And while a list of 100 women may stun some, she doesn’t hold it against him realizing that this was before they were married. But something or someone seems to be missing.

As information comes in Jack is cleared of any involvement and instead of suspect officially begins investigating the culprit. Each murder involves one more of Jack’s past conquests, each one leaves something else that should be a clue and each one offers a Bible passage that is intended to aid Jack in catching the killer.

The clock is ticking and more women are at risk. With each passing day another could fall victim to this killer and several do. Until Jack can face his past and discover how these clues come together the killer will carry on.

This movie, made on a small budget, does offer an interesting tale. An allegory for STDs? Perhaps but I doubt it. Instead we have a tale of a man who feels regret, who feels shame and who feels guilt about having people in his past hurt by someone in the present.

Liotta does a great job here as one would expect. In recent years, he’s been tossed aside into the direct for DVD market, but that only works to help movies in that genre. Slater has also been relegated to that market and done fine as well. In this movie though he’s pretty much wasted in a part that should have been bigger.

By the end of the film you’ll discover who the killer is, be able to piece together the parts of the puzzle that led to him and find a conclusion that will surprise you. Who he is and how he got to be who he’s become is interesting and better thought out than most made for DVD mysteries.  It may not be the greatest mystery ever filmed but it will offer an entertaining evening for fans of the genre.

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