Untraceable Movie DVD Review
In today’s techie society, it seems only fitting that a film explores the reliance most of us have on our gadgets, and just how much information said gadgets hold. In Untraceable, Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) plays a widow living in suburban Portland with her daughter Annie (Perla Haney-Jardine of Kill Bill, Spider-Man3) and her mother Stella (Mary Beth Hurt of The Dead Girl, Lady In The Water).
Marsh pulls the night shift in the FBI’s cyber crime division, where she works with Griffin Dowd (Colin Hanks) to fight identity theft, online pedophiles and various cyber crimes. When the team receives an anonymous tip to a website called killwithme.com, things turn ugly.
First, the site features a streaming video of a kitten being tortured and killed. Then, killwithme starts taking human lives, and each death directly correlates to the number of hits the site receives. Detective Eric Box (Billy Burke) joins in the FBI investigation, and everyone involved races against time to stop the person behind killwithme.com.
Lane (Hollywoodland, Unfaithful, The Glass House) does a good job of being the heroine in the film, and she pairs nicely with Burke (Twilight, Fracture). Hanks (King Kong, “Roswell”), following in his father’s footsteps perhaps, provides some much needed comic relief to the film.
Untraceable also stars Joseph Cross (Milk, Running With Scissors), Tyrone Giordano (The Family Stone, A Lot Like Love), and Christopher Cousins (“One Life To Live”, “Lipstick Jungle”). Untraceable is directed by Gregory Hoblit (Fracture, Frequency, Fallen, Primal Fear) and written by Robery Fyvolent, Mark Brinker and Allison Burnett (Autumn In New York, Resurrecting The Champ).
The DVD is presented in 2.40 : 1 aspect ratio with sound in Dolby Digital 5.1 in French, English, and Portuguese and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo in Spanish. Subtitles are available in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.
Extras include the standard fare audio commentary from the director (Hoblit), producer Hawk Koch and production designer Paul Eads; and four featurettes. The first, “Tracking Untraceable”, is a discussion about the origin of the project featuring various crew members. The second featurette, “The Personnel Files”, delves into the casting of the film and features Lane and Hanks. The third, “The Blueprint Of Murder”, looks at production design and sets used in the film. The last featurette, “The Anatomy Of Murder”, looks at the murder scenes in the film.
Untraceable is rated R for good reason—lots of violence and torture, plus plenty of psychological twists that adults will enjoy but will surely give the kiddos nightmares. The film is a nice twist on the thriller/crime/horror genre, and it offers enough believability to draw viewers in. It also explores societal issues and makes the point that we are all watchers in some form or fashion.