COPYCAT

Yet again we're in curate's egg territory.

On the plus side it's a film with two lead female protagonists, very unusual for 1995.  They are portrayed by Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter (another big plus). 

Refreshingly there are virtually no romantic subplots: instead we get to focus on Dr Helen Hudson (Weaver) as an expert in serial killers who doesn't suffer fools gladly and MJ Monahan (Hunter) as a no-nonsense police inspector.

And it's a serial killer thriller set in San Francisco.

So what are the negatives?

Well, the direction and soundtrack are both bland (although the director Jon Amiel does at least deserve credit for coming up with the idea of the two leads being women.)

The premise, a copycat serial killer, is fine as far as it goes but the story doesn't do that much with it.  There is also an odd subplot involving a former lover of MJ and a shooting at the police station which is unsatisfactory in itself but we are also asked to believe that it stops the police from following up a huge opportunity to catch the killer.

That being said, of course Weaver and Hunter deliver fine performances (better than the material and direction deserve) which are more than enough to paper over the cracks in the story (like for example how easily the killer is able to get in and out of Helen's apartment).

Apparently the film suffered from post-production problems due to bad feedback from audience previews as to the original ending, leading to a rewrite and the shooting of a new ending.  Since I reckon the ending we now have is very good those preview audiences should take a bow. 

RATING: ✓ If You've Nothing Better To Do