It doesn’t take much to make a great thriller, particularly when a serial killer is involved. A little bit of clever framing, whether it’s the seven deadly sins or the FBI using the expertise of one killer to catch another, is all you really need to cook up something great. In the best examples, even the smallest details wrap back around to the central story, and every character beat has some larger significance to or ramification for the case at hand. Unfortunately, this is also exactly where 2023’s fun but ultimately lacking FBI thriller To Catch a Killer, which just got added to Netflix, goes wrong.
The film follows a young cop named Eleanor (Shailene Woodley) who gets pulled onto an FBI team to investigate the mysterious case of a phantom sniper who kills dozens of random partygoers in Baltimore, then seemingly disappears. All of this is handled excellently. Eleanor gets swallowed whole by the investigatory apparatus, and instantly is enthralled by the charismatic lead investigator — played with winning charm and gruffness by Ben Mendelsohn. The details of the case unfold slowly, with disparate winding paths resolving into dead ends and bizarre new clues sprouting up out of the blue. It all plays out exactly how you hope a procedural thriller of this variety would: economical, tense storytelling with a clever breadcrumb trail of hunches leading us closer and closer to the killer.
The opening scene, where the shooter opens fire from a high-rise on New Year’s Eve, is absolutely harrowing, and the approach fits the movie perfectly. Director Damián Szifron shoots each victim’s death with an understated flair that draws us into the horror and suddenness of the killing without glamorizing or overstylizing it. It’s impressive work that builds the paranoia of the film fantastically, and without a single character uttering a word. By the time we hear the police chief talking about the city being in a panic a few scenes later, it’s easy to really feel that fear. Rather than the kind of dialogue shortcut some thrillers rely on, the movie pulls us into that atmosphere of citywide tension.
But after all this wonderfully built tension and intrigue, To Catch a Killer’s second half lets the rest of the movie down. Rather than sticking to the economical mystery building that makes the earlier moments so effective, the movie eventually starts having its characters dutifully and carefully explain their backstories — almost every single person gets at least one monologue to explain their whole deal to us somewhere in the movie’s last hour.
That’s probably because To Catch a Killer’s script has a bit too much on its mind. Its characters are constantly referencing real-life events, or factoids about gun violence, mental health, or any other hot-button issue they can think of. It would almost be excusable if just one or two characters spoke like this, but instead, every line of dialogue in the movie takes the tone of true-crime podcasters speculating on potential suspects in a cold case and what their motives could have been. It all feels like a total abandonment of the hard logic and procedural investigation that made the first half of the movie sing.
The good news, though, is that none of this renders To Catch a Killer unwatchable. In fact, it’s still a pretty good time and a terrific fit for when you’re looking for a solid thriller to fire up on Netflix on a whim. While the script gets in the way, it’s confidently directed and edited and has some strong performances in the cast, particularly Ralph Ineson, who shines late in the movie. It’s just a little disappointing that it falls short of the thriller greatness that we got glimpses of early on.
To Catch a Killer is now streaming on Netflix.
The post To Catch a Killer, now on Netflix, is a great thriller lost in the details appeared first on Polygon.
