Twisted Movie Review:


The only surprise in this supposedly tricky thriller is that the script attracted this cast and director. Otherwise it's moviemaking by numbers, and if you haven't figured out whodunit about 10 minutes in, your brain has been lulled to sleep. But it's a slick, dreamy Hollywood kind of sleep--painless and relatively entertaining as long as you don't engage your mind.

Jessica (Judd) is really one of the boys in the San Francisco Police Department--drinking, swearing and engaging in anonymous sex like there's no tomorrow. Just promoted to homicide, she's just starting on her first case when she begins to suspect that she's actually the murderer, killing men during alcohol-induced blackouts. And yet she doesn't stop drinking! This is because she has a Tortured Past: Her parents died tragically and she was raised by her cop father's partner (Jackson), who's now a top police commissioner. Her new partner (Garcia) seems a bit suspicious, as do a couple of her former bed-buddies (Pellegrino and Porter), but maybe the police shrink (Strathairn) can sort her out before she kills again. Although we all know she's not the killer!

Director Kaufman, apparently working for the money, at least adds some intriguing visual style to Thorp's profoundly derivative script, which is so jammed with cliches that it hurts. The acting is strong. Judd has an interesting screen presence that wins us over, even though we've seen her play this character before (High Crimes, Kiss the Girls). She's obviously more shaded here since she drinks constantly, has a hot temper, wears a black leather jacket and drives a vintage (black) Mustang! Meanwhile her costars do their best as well to inject some class and offbeat energy to the otherwise plodding storyline. It gets sillier and cornier by the minute, and it's only watchable because of the talent that seeps through the cracks. And the only mystery is why the studios keep spending so much to make this exact same film over and over again.

Rich Cline

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Twisted tries to be a surprising "who dun it," but after the first thirty minutes, the weaknesses of the film leaves you not caring at all about the film’s supposed twists. Jessica Shepard (Ashley Judd) is a risky cop that has been recently promoted to inspector on the San Francisco police force.
Her boss is police commissioner John Mills (Samuel L. Jackson), who also raised Shepard after her crazed father, who was also his ex-partner, murdered her mother and then killed himself. Due to the tragic loss of her mother, Shepard has relied on alcoholism and her rabid sexuality as an outlet of release. She is soon teamed up with a new partner, Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia), and the two
began investigating a series of brutal killings along the waters of the San Francisco bay. Shepard is appalled to learn that the victims are all men that
she has recently had one night flings with and all the motive points her way. Also suffering from mental blackouts, Shepard has no alibi, and now she must decide who she can trust, or if she can trust herself.

Philip Kaufman has directed some solid films in the past, such as The Right Stuff and Quills, but one wonders how he ever got attached to a film like
Twisted. All of Kaufman’s choices as a filmmaker are nothing fresh or intuitive. In one scene, he actually relies on the old stereotype of mice under a car to try and get some jumps from the audience. Overall, his direction seemed worn and very tired. Twisted might have had some excitement, if Kaufman would have jumpstarted his pacing and sequencing, even though the film is still
pretty short.

The film’s script by Sarah Thorp is even more of a disaster. Combine with subtly and absolutely horrendous dialogue, the film becomes boring in its
first act and leaves you feeling no anticipation towards its hidden secrets. The supporting characters such as Shepard’s partner Delmarco, along with her past lovers have absolutely no depth, in which there is no understanding as to
why Delmarco freaks out and raises his voice each time he is question by Shepard. The actual outcome is twisted as the title says, but due to the
underdevelopment in the script, the ending outcome is nothing close to surprising.

Ashley Judd is a perfect actress for a film of this genre; it is just too bad she picked a poor script this time around. She does what she can with
the role, but at times she seems vanquished. Once again staying away from his usual hothead roles, and taking a more father-figure cop role, as he did in S.W.A.T., Samuel L. Jackson is modest at best in the few times he is on the screen in this film. Besides his unintentional notions of raising his voice and desperately trying to capture charm, Andy Garcia struggles with what he is given
to work with also as Judd’s partner. All of the actors in this film, which also includes David Strathairn, are all more talented than what they reflect in
this film.

Twisted is just a squandered thriller that is something all audiences have seen so many times before. A usually efficient Philip Kaufman brings
nothing fresh or unique with his direction as this film drags itself along from scene to scene.

Grade: D+

Joseph Tucker

Where has the Judd gone?

Ashley Judd really burst onto the scene with the 1996 Marilyn Monroe bio-pic “Norma Jean & Marilyn” where Judd played the more reserved Norma Jean to Mira Sorvino’s Marilyn. Judd was brilliant and began a great theatrical supporting career with films like “A Time to Kill”, “Kiss the Girls” and “Simon Birch”. Then in 1999, Judd became a box office champion and leading lady with the runaway hit “Double Jeopardy”. She hasn’t looked back since. Maybe she should have or at least with “Twisted” she should now.

Judd plays ball-buster and “newly made” homicide detective Jessica Shepherd who was raised by her father’s ex-partner John Mills (Samuel L Jackson), where she was taught by Mills to be a damn fine cop like her father. Upon receiving her homicide badge, Jessica is assigned new veteran partner Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia) and a new chief Lieutenant Tong (Russell Wong).

Jessica is being haunted by images from her past. As her first homicide case begins to unravel clues point to Jessica as each of her victims were one of her one night stands. Could Jessica be the murderer or is it an elaborate hoax to bring down the city’s finest female homicide detective?

“Twisted” is probably the worst script I have witnessed for a motion picture in recent memory. All of my worst films of last year come close to the awfulness of this script but none are as bad. “Gigli” included. An excellent script is paramount (no pun intended) when sculpting a successful crime drama.

What’s wrong with the script? Well for starters the actors recite dialogue that belongs in those late night Cinemax movies starring Andrew Stevens and Shannon Tweed. Corny lines like, “It was such an honor to raise the daughter of my dead ex-partner.” or “Let’s say hello to good mental health.”

Then there are all those stupid multiple-shown scenes like Judd “power-pounding” red wine in a water glass then starring at a photo of her recently shot father and passing out. That one scene must have been shown at least 6 or 7 times. Another repeated scene is her mentor Jackson saying that there is no way she should be taken off the case.

Judd’s character is so rugged and almost sleazy that you really feel the woman has been seriously miscast. There is very little to care about or like about her and that bugged me.

Jackson also is so useless in this movie that he seems bored. I love him as an actor but here there is no life in him.

“Twisted” fails on so many levels and even though it supports a strong cast. I really have to admire the skill in casting for this film and it was nice to see TV vets Russell Wong and Titus Welliver again. I also do have to give leads Judd, Jackson and Strathairn credit for delivering some of those awful lines with a straight face.

Why doesn’t Hollywood stop making grimy, gritty crime thrillers? We are all waiting for the next “Se7en” or “Usual Suspects” but the awful ones we have to absorb in the meantime, like “Twisted”, is painful. TV these days supports great crime drama with hits like “Law & Order” and “C.S.I.” even when these shows are on an off night they aren’t as painful as this film.

The most twisted thing about this whole film is how it ever got past the script stage.

(1 out of 5)

So Says the Soothsayer

Dean Kish

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