Murder mysteries are usually a good time. Even if the plot feels underdeveloped or the characters seem a little thin, there remains the impulse to find out the Truth. When murders are revealed to be the work of a serial killer, that hunger for knowledge becomes even more intense. We love stories about mind we do not understand, and what mind is more confusing to us than that someone who kills for sport? Films like Johnathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs and David Fincher’s Se7en keep us on the edge of our seats while holding up a mirror forcing us to explore the grey areas of their psyches. Unfortunately, despite a promising plot, Mauro Borrelli’s Mindcage is nowhere near that level of filmmaking
Mindcage tells the story of detectives Mary Kelly (Melissa Roxburgh) and Jake Doyle (Martin Lawrence), partners thrown together on the force even though they obviously dislike each other. As the genre dictates, Doyle thinks Kelly is an inexperienced female sleuth with little to no smarts to her name, and Kelly is determined to prove him otherwise by being unnecessarily hostile at every turn. It’s clear from the start that at some point these two will learn to love each other.
From the start, things are tense. You see, someone has been murdering sex workers, preserving their bodies and posing them as intricate religious angels all over town. The only problem is this isn’t the first time someone has committed these crimes. It looks like Doyle and Kelly have a copycat on their hands, and because Doyle was the one who worked and solved the original case, it’s up to Kelly to take the lead here. Of course, taking the lead means that Kelly must partake in interviewing the original killer, known as “The Artist” (John Malkovich), in true Clarice Starling style, but will her own personal hang ups get in the way of her ability to solve the case? Only time will tell! Meanwhile, something weird is going on with Doyle — Kelly found a book about exorcisms in the glove compartment of his car! How weird! — but that’s probably just because his last partner died trying to capture The Artist and he’s having a hard time recovering. Right?
The reliance on so many familiar tropes would not be such a big deal if Mindcage were any good. But the film is so strangely paced that it’s hard to let go of the fact that you’ve seen and heard a lot of this before. All of the creepy intrigue around the way the killer disposes of his victims is lost to the fact that the script can’t seem to figure out what information is important to tell and what’s not. Doyle’s seeming fascination with exorcisms becomes nothing more than a passing phase. Kelly is in a relationship with an ex-priest—who frankly seems creepier than The Artist, simply because he just acts weird and never says much.
Then there’s the acting. At first it seems like Roxburgh and Lawrence are doing their best with a flimsy script, though one soon wonders if they gave up and phoned it in. But it’s not just the leads that come up short. Pretty much everyone in this cage behaves as if they have been going about their lives in oblivious Truman Show style until they were suddenly informed they were actors in a film and are trying a little too hard to convince us they’re real people. Everyone talks like there is a period after every word they say; maybe this is for dramatic effect, but damn. It eventually starts to sound like they’re all running out of oxygen.
Perhaps the best moment in the film comes after Doyle and Kelly discover that the killer wants them to seek out a book about artist Hieronymus Bosch. Kelly notices that the volume is out of print, but Doyle coyly assures her this won’t be a problem. At this point, experienced film watchers would presume the duo are about to visit a hole-in-the-wall antiquarian bookstore or the private library of an eccentric literary denizen of this cursed town, but no. Doyle has someplace in mind that’s even better. The public library. That’s right, folks. This rare, out of print book just happens to be chilling on a shelf next to the Junie B. Jones in what appears to be one of the most mediocre libraries known to man. Although this scene is supposed to be a revelation, the sheer ridiculousness of their location did nothing but make this particular reviewer cackle with glee.
One might say this bizarre disconnect between what is said and what happens on screen is a great way to sum up the film, which would make the ending — a twist that even a pretzel would hate — make a lot more sense. Ultimately, Mindcage’s biggest downfall is that it tries too hard to make a movie about copycats–by copying the great films that have travelled this terrain before. Mysteries are usually thrilling, but this one is decidedly not.
Photo courtesy of Lionsgate
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