Untraceable

DVD review Plot points never resonate, so the story never goes beyond a simple story, told efficiently, succinctly and professionally.

If Untraceable were as unpredictable as the website referred to in the title, the director Gregory Hoblit might have had himself a hit or, at the very least, a film as fun as two of his previous features, Fallen and Primal Fear. But Hoblit's roots are in TV series, where story is everything and subtext all but nonexistent. Unsurprisingly, then, it is a lack of subtext that makes Untraceable uninteresting. Diane Lane stars as an FBI cyber-crimes cop who stumbles across a snuff website where hog-tied captives are tortured by ingeniously gruesome methods that intensify as more viewers log on to the site. Web surfers are well aware of this, of course, making them willing participants in the victim's ultimate murder. Five minutes following the opening credits, it is obvious how the film will end and you get one guess who is going to escape the killer's clutches at the last possible moment and bring an end to his murder spree. The biggest disappointment, however, is that Hoblit had a script laden with potential for illuminating or, at least, meditating on the braiding of human lives and computer technology, and that potential goes unfulfilled. Plot points never resonate, so the story never goes beyond a simple story, told efficiently, succinctly and professionally. As seen on TV.