When Dallas FBI Agent Thomas Mackelway violates serial killer Raymond Starkey's civil rights during an unorthodox arrest, Starkey goes free and Mackelway is suspended and required to submit himself to psychological testing. When his testing and suspension is up he finds himself demoted to a remote branch of the agency in Albuquerque. His first day on the job, Mackelway investigates the murder of a traveling salesman Harold Speck, which turns out to be the first of three seemingly random killings. Or perhaps they are not random at all; the last to die is Mackelway's nemesis, Raymond Starkey. The assignment consumes him. His past mistakes haunt him. His head throbs constantly as he tries to find the link between the victims that will lead him to their killer. The case becomes increasingly gruesome and patently personal. This does not go unnoticed by his unflappable partner Fran Kulok who has been reassigned from the Dallas office to assist him with the case, and who knows of Mackelway's past and the demons that afflict him. Like Mackelway, she becomes drawn into the labyrinth of chilling clues, all of which point to the enigmatic Benjamin O'Ryan. O'Ryan clearly has a connection to the murders, a connection he flaunts; quite possibly, he may also harbor a sinister link to Mackelway.

I can’t exactly put my finger on what was so terribly wrong with this movie, but there was something wrong with it. The movie was almost morose at times and fell into the category of being quite boring at times. I rarely felt compelled by the movie to wonder what was going to happen next, nor was I able to care for any of the characters on the screen. And a lot of that is the screenwriting, which was very mediocre at best. Like the fact that they make mention of Mackelway and Fran be an item at one time, but then they fail to ever clarify why they broke up or even if they were happy. There is absolutely no chemistry between Aaron Eckhart and Carrie-Anne Moss so maybe that’s why they just try to ignore the fact that they were once a couple, but then why do they even bother to mention it to us in the first place. This is a movie that I think thought they could rest on its laurels by playing the snazzy who done it routine and getting their audiences to try and guess how the movie was going to end and who eventually would be the bad guy. But the only problem is they fail to make you care about the characters or even about trying to figure out who did it as the movie just bores you. The movie is simply a failure and not worth the time it takes them to nearly bore you to death.
1 star out of 5