And, other than being gay, Lammark feels like a stereotypical hard-as-nails cop. Unfortunately, certain moments, like a dinner discussion between Lammark and his husband Gavin ( Michael Cram), devolve into trite didacticism. From there, the film moves through the exact kind of investigative beats you’d expect, with Eleanor lending her brain to Lammark and his team, including charismatic FBI Agent Jack Mackenzie ( Jovan Adepo). This fresh perspective leads Lammark to reassign Eleanor as BPD’s liaison to the FBI. After fishing some feces out of a toilet, they discover the perp has an iron deficiency and, therefore, may be a vegetarian. Later, while investigating the remains of the bombed-out apartment, she helps the FBI think outside the box in terms of places the perpetrator may have left his DNA. That the script doesn’t use this moment to say anything about our current surveillance state remains a curious oversight. Her quick wits lead her to get the other beat cops to start recording all the faces of those fleeing the destruction, lest the shooter is among them. Woodley’s Eleanor is introduced similarly to Angelia Jolie’s character in Phillip Noyce’s far superior entry in the genre, 1999’s “ The Bone Collector.” After she arrives on the scene of the shooting, a nearby apartment explodes. While Szifron and cinematographer Javier Juliá’s imagery is stylish-and well-lit!-their work is hampered by overwrought plotting and underdeveloped characters. However, its ambitions overwhelm its abilities. The thriller, which Szifron co-wrote with Jonathan Wakeham, aims to use the serial killer movie formula to critique our failing systems and take shots at everything from politicians to the FBI to police departments to the media to jingoistic fascists to the military-industrial complex to the NRA to America’s limited access to mental health care.
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