‘The Watcher’ Looks Like a Routine Suspense Thriller

“The Watcher” is a meticulously crafted but resolutely routine serial killer suspense thriller. While intelligently plotted and well-acted by James Spader, Keanu Reeves and Marisa Tomei, it is neither acutely suspenseful nor particularly thrilling but instead mainly numbing. You’re left wishing that Oscar-winning cinematographer Michael Chapman’s glorious lensing of Chicago was in the service of a far more engaging and original movie.

Spader plays Campbell, an FBI specialist in serial killers who has failed to nail the killer of 11 women in Los Angeles. He’s gone into hiding in Chicago, where he’s under heavy medication and regular therapy from a psychologist (Tomei). Naturally, the killer (Reeves) soon pops up in the Windy City to continue singling out largely solitary young women for strangling with piano wire. Tomei’s Polly assures Campbell that, as burned-out as he is, he’s still the guy best qualified to continue trying to nab Reeves’ Griffin, who always dresses in black.

As time passes and Griffin still eludes Campbell, writers David Elliot and Clay Ayers begin offering a few observations, primarily that Griffin needs to feel that Campbell specifically is pursuing him. It gives him an added kick, and it would seem that he has, in a sense, fallen in love with the FBI agent--though that would scarcely stop him from killing him if he could.

The film, which has been directed with energy and dispatch by Joe Charbanic, takes its title from Griffin’s careful observation of the daily routines of the women he chooses as his victims; it also allows the serial killer to make the point that “We don’t notice each other anymore,” thus enabling him to get away with killing largely anonymous young women, such as a clerk in a shopping mall photo developing store and a homeless young runaway, panhandling in the streets.

But that’s about it for content. It’s good to see an actor who radiates as much intelligence as Spader capably hold down a major role in a big action movie, but Reeves is asked no more than to be insinuatingly evil and clearly crazed, and Tomei is required little more than to register lots of empathy for Spader’s Campbell. Among the supporting players, Chris Ellis is a standout as the kind of dedicated, confident cop that we wish all police officers could be.

MPAA-rated: R, for violence and language. Times guidelines: much emphasis on violence directed at women, much action-movie violence and some strong language.

‘The Watcher’

James Spader: Campbell

Marisa Tomei: Polly

Keanu Reeves: Griffin

Ernie Hudson: Ibby

Chris Ellis: Hollis[

A Universal Pictures presentation in association with Interlight of a Lewitt/Eberts-Choni/Niami production. Director Joe Charbanic. Producers Christopher Eberts, Elliot Lewitt, Jeff Rice, Nile Niami. Executive producers Patrick Choi, Paul Pompian. Screenplay by David Elliot and Clay Ayers; from a story by Darcy Meyers and Elliot. Cinematographer Michael Chapman. Editor Richard Nord. Music Marco Beltrami. Visual effects supervisor Rodney Iwashina. Costumes Jay Hurley. Production designers Brian Eatwell, Maria Caso. Art director Jeff Wallace. Set designer Pat Raney. Set decorator Caroline Perzan. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.