A few days ago I was talking to some friends about Morgan Freeman and we started trying to think of some lesser known films he's been in. I wondered out loud, saying "The Bone Collector?". "Ah yes!" said one of my friends, "he plays a disabled cop doesn't he?" "That's the one, with Angelina Jolie", I replied. "Hang on", said our other friend, "he wasn't in that." "Yes he was!" we replied in tandem. "No, it was Denzel Washington!" he said and we both fell silent. "No, it was definitely Morgan Freeman..." I began but I instantly began to doubt myself. "There's only one way to settle this", I said, marching off to get my copy.
He was right and we were wrong. Ah well, can't get them all right. Anyway, it's been about 8 or 9 years since I saw The Bone Collector for the first and only time and I decided the time was ripe to re-watch it. The story's pretty simple: Denzel Washington plays Lincoln Rhyme, a disabled former New York City homicide detective and prolific author who was injured in an accident in the line of duty and is now confined to his bed. Paralysed below the neck he uses his one working finger to operate his custom-made computer and is assisted by his nurse, Thelma (Queen Latifah) and his technician, Richard (Leland Orser). When his friend and former colleague Detective Paulie Sellitto (Ed O'Neill) comes to him for help with a case he initially refuses but is drawn in by both the circumstances and the talents of the first officer on the scene, rookie cop Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie). The grisly murders keep stacking up, as do the baffling clues. Together, Lincoln and Amelia must solve the clues and find the killer before it's too late.
Standard police thriller fare then. Stylistically it's quite unusual, blending Rear Window with Seven and throwing in a bit of The Crow for good measure. Unfortunately, it manages to capture neither Hitchcock's legendary suspense or flair and none of Seven's gritty realism or interesting story. The references to The Crow are more bizarre than anything else - for some reason Lincoln has a peregrine falcon watching over him.
It starts off with a flashback to Lincoln's accident (although the use of slow-mo does detract from it somewhat) and the abduction of a couple by a mysterious taxi driver. When we first meet Lincoln, he's unhappy and frustrated. He's suffering from seizures which will eventually leave him in a vegetative state and he wants his doctor friend, Barry Lehman (John Benjamin Hickey) to help him commit suicide. Across town Amelia is out on patrol when she is called over to a railway line where a kid has found a dead body, that of the abducted man from earlier. After stopping an oncoming train and photographing and recovering the clues before the rain can destroy them, the big guns turn up. Detectives Sellitto and Solomon (Mike McGlone) are impressed but Captain Howard Cheney (Michael Rooker) is not. Sellitto and Solomon take the case to Lincoln who is about to dismiss them when he has a seizure. When he has recovered, he looks over the file and his attention is drawn to the victim's finger, which had the flesh stripped off it and the clues, which seem to indicate a love of all things old.
Amelia, meanwhile, is in her first training class in preparation for her switch to Youth Services and a cushy desk job. Lincoln asks for her by name and she is summoned to his apartment where the investigation is beginning. Together they put together the clues and are led to the next murder victim: the man's wife. Lincoln rejects the help of the rest of the forensics department and the medical examiners and sends in Amelia alone, relaying instructions to her as she describes what she sees. When he asks her to sever the dead woman's hands is gets too much and she refuses to help him anymore. While Solomon visits her apartment to convince her to come back and help them save the next victim, Lincoln checks out her background and discovers that her father was a cop and that she was the one who found his body after he shot himself.
Another piece of bone and other clues at the crime scene lead them to a third victim. By now, Lincoln's methods have drawn the ire of Captain Cheney who takes control of the case away from Lincoln and threatens Amelia. He succeeds in only bungling things up so she continues to help Lincoln. When he gets techie Eddie Ortiz (Luis Guzman) to do a search for other murders involving removed flesh that exposes bone, they get several matches. Piecing together scraps of paper found at each crime scene they find a logo for an old publishing company. Amelia investigates further at an old book shop and finds a book called The Bone Collector, a book of true crime which features pictures of crime scenes exactly like the ones they've been finding. The next murders will be at the river and they arrive in time to save a little girl but not her grandpa. The final clue points Amelia to a police officer and she realises that his target is none other than Lincoln.
Aside from my earlier criticisms, The Bone Collector is just too clichéd and formulaic. The characters are all pretty much your run of the mill stock characters but the acting is top-notch. I'll gloss over the schmaltzy ending (it involves a reunion with a long-lost relative) which leaves you with this sickly taste in your mouth and focus instead on Amelia. Angelina Jolie does a fine job but her character's underlying issues (father's death, inability to commit to her fuck buddy, her being traumatised at the second crime scene) are all completely washed over. Solomon turns up and tells her that Lincoln thinks there's a third victim and she instantly goes from moping around her apartment, drinking by herself to getting dressed and going back to work. If you're going to include all the backstory crap at least make sure it has a decent resolution! Furthermore, the idea that a rookie cop would suddenly take over investigating crime scenes and cataloguing evidence from the forensics team is just silly. Finally, the complete lack of any suspense. I don't know what it is in particular but there's a sense of resolution about the film from the very beginning. We know what's going to happen and no amount of time spent pouring over clues from 1910s New York or walking around dank and dreary crime scenes is going to change that. I've probably come across as more critical than I actually am. Despite its flaws it's a decent, well-acted film and it breezes through its surprising run time of one hour fifty-seven.
All in all, The Bone Collector is a bit disappointing, but it's well acted and worth a watch.
6 out of 10.
