Filthy Review - Faces in the Crowd

Faces in the Crowd (2011)

Review by Jude Felton

Milla Jovovich is without doubt most famous for her recurring role as Alice in the Resident Evil franchise. In these flicks she gets to kick a lot of ass and throw out a few cool one-liners. Now, whilst I enjoy these movies in a popcorn kind of way I much prefer her in movies such as A Perfect Getaway, and even the flawed The Fourth Kind, movies where she is required to dig a little deeper into her roles, rather than just jump from one action scene to the next. Faces in the Crowd is her latest attempt at a more serious role, and for the most part does a quite decent job.

This Canadian lensed movie follows Anna Marchant (Jovovich), a school teacher who survives an attack by the notorious serial killer Tearjerk Jack. The attack results in Anna developing face blindness, in which she is unable to distinguish the faces of other people. She can see faces, but not necessarily those she would expect to see. With the killer still at large a game of cat and mouse ensues as Anna tries to help Detective Kerrest (Julian McMahon) bring the killer to justice.

The premise behind Faces in the Crowd may be a little far-fetched but it did actual make for a fair engrossing movie. The characters Anna interacts with end up being played by several actors which kept me guessing as to who the killer actually was. The story did meander a little at times when it could have been a little more focused. Although saying this I do believe that this was an intentional ploy on behalf of director Julien Magnet to disorientate the audience, much as Anna is. Having Marianne Faithful pop up as a psychiatrist was quite a cool touch too.

What really holds the movie together though is Jovovich, it is after all her movie and she is also onboard as an Executive Producer, with her appearing in almost every scene. She plays the role of a confused and disorientated survivor with a wide-eyed innocence and gives a fairly believable performance.

Unfortunately there are too many convenient moments that take away from a promising premise which may lead to some viewers feeling a little short changed. That being said I would much rather watch Milla in a movie like this rather than a big budget, high action literary adaptation.  Also, for a movie that features a serial killer prominently in the plot it is surprisingly restrained in the claret department. There are a few bloody scenes but nothing gory as this is a more of a psychological thriller as opposed to some of the more visceral serial killer movies out there.

Faces in the Crowd is a flawed movie but not one without it good points, and as such is worth a rental for Milla fans and fans of thrillers that are a little different from the norm.

Face in the Crowd is released on DVD, Digital Download and Blu-ray by Millennium Entertainment on October 25th.