Along Came A Spider

Directed by Lee Tamahori

With Morgan Freeman, Monica Potter, Michael Wincott, Mika Boreem and others

Christina says:

In spite of the tight security 11-year-old Megan (Mika Boreem), the daughter of a senator, is abducted from her exclusive school in Washington, D. C. Her teacher and kidnapper Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott) insists that the famous profiler Dr. Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) is part of the investigation because this way the kidnapping gets even more media attention. Cross and the Secret Service agent Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter), head of the school’s security team, follow the leads Soneji gives them and are able to prevent him from kidnapping another child, but Soneji’s strange behavior keeps puzzling the experienced psychologist.

Lee Tamahori made a mediocre thriller with rather boring ingredients: the brilliant detective who has to recover from a traumatic experience, the equally brilliant criminal who can’t be a pervert so the movie is still suitable for a wide audience, the cute female Secret Service agent who makes a silly mistake now and then so the investigators don’t solve the case too fast. The result didn’t exactly keep me on the edge of my seat, but still had a few surprising twists to offer. Just as in KISS THE GIRLS, the first big screen adaptation of an Alex-Cross-novel by James Patterson, the victim is not completely helpless and does her best to escape. Mika Boorem as clever kid Megan is one asset ALONG CAME A SPIDER can boast. Her parents (Penelope Ann Miller and Michael Moriarty) and the bevy of agents of FBI, Secret Service etc. deliver their lines looking bored and stiff. The best thing about the movie is Morgan Freeman. His work makes up for some of the plot holes even if he is twice as old as Alex Cross in the books. Had his counterpart been an equally gifted actor they could have saved the movie together, but that’s not the case with Michael Wincott. The student-teacher-constellation between Cross and Flannigan remains flat as well, because Monica Potter has little more to offer than her pretty face. And if it’s so easy for the good guy to get the baddies his victory is less than glorious.

I hope Tamahori will return to making movies like ONCE WERE WARRIORS. He has too much talent to turn out run-of-the-mill stuff like ALONG CAME A SPIDER.

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Christina Gross

Last changes: 01/04/03