"To catch a killer" works like a police procedural until three-quarters through. I'll come back to that.
It opens with a code "G25" crisis, whatever that means. Then it's total mayhem, an explosion in a high rise. This introduces us to Eleanor (Shailene Woodley), police officer, who valiantly stays at the scene to help, only to be discovered by the rescue team "fainted, or something to that effect". When the dust settled, literally, 29 victims have been shot, by a deadly (even more literally) sniper. Introduced next is FBI lead investigator, no-nonsense Lammark (Ben Mendelsohn), who lectures the investigation team on the key concept that the killer they are trying to catch is not "a type" (a Nazis, for example). "Someone loved him, someone taught him, someone sold him a gun". "There is an Olympic class marksman running around" he concludes.
It doesn't take long for Eleanor to impress Lammark with her analytical abilities, despite her dubious records. Her file describes her as "aggressive, addictive, antisocial", "the sort of people we arrest, not hire" he observes. When she mistakes him for making an advance, he explains "I am married" and invites her to come to dinner and discuss the case. It turns out that he is gay, and his husband is a witty, entertaining, talkative dinner companion, to such an extent that Lammark threatens to arrest him for "interfering with the work of two law-enforcement officers". The rest of the movie, up to the three-quarter point, follows two predictable parallel trajectories of investigative details and development of mutual respect and friendship between Eleanor and Lammark.
Then, about three-quarter through, there are some abrupt turns and twists that become challenging. The villain, when finally appearing, does not impress enough to match the build-up in the first three quarters of the movie. Lammark, as it turns out, is there only to enhance the story of Eleanor which, you then realize, is the soul and anchor of this movie. The focus, therefore, is on the performance of Shailene Woodley, whose face is probably best known for her appearance in the TV series "Little big lies". In "To catch a killer", she has a fair bit of heavy-lifting to do. She is neither brilliant nor inadequate. Delivers.
It opens with a code "G25" crisis, whatever that means. Then it's total mayhem, an explosion in a high rise. This introduces us to Eleanor (Shailene Woodley), police officer, who valiantly stays at the scene to help, only to be discovered by the rescue team "fainted, or something to that effect". When the dust settled, literally, 29 victims have been shot, by a deadly (even more literally) sniper. Introduced next is FBI lead investigator, no-nonsense Lammark (Ben Mendelsohn), who lectures the investigation team on the key concept that the killer they are trying to catch is not "a type" (a Nazis, for example). "Someone loved him, someone taught him, someone sold him a gun". "There is an Olympic class marksman running around" he concludes.
It doesn't take long for Eleanor to impress Lammark with her analytical abilities, despite her dubious records. Her file describes her as "aggressive, addictive, antisocial", "the sort of people we arrest, not hire" he observes. When she mistakes him for making an advance, he explains "I am married" and invites her to come to dinner and discuss the case. It turns out that he is gay, and his husband is a witty, entertaining, talkative dinner companion, to such an extent that Lammark threatens to arrest him for "interfering with the work of two law-enforcement officers". The rest of the movie, up to the three-quarter point, follows two predictable parallel trajectories of investigative details and development of mutual respect and friendship between Eleanor and Lammark.
Then, about three-quarter through, there are some abrupt turns and twists that become challenging. The villain, when finally appearing, does not impress enough to match the build-up in the first three quarters of the movie. Lammark, as it turns out, is there only to enhance the story of Eleanor which, you then realize, is the soul and anchor of this movie. The focus, therefore, is on the performance of Shailene Woodley, whose face is probably best known for her appearance in the TV series "Little big lies". In "To catch a killer", she has a fair bit of heavy-lifting to do. She is neither brilliant nor inadequate. Delivers.