"The Bone Collector" is a movie full of tropes. If analyzed far enough, it really is just trope after trope. Denzel Washington plays brilliant police detective turned jaded crippled Lincoln Rhyme alongside Angelina Jolie, who plays brilliant beat cop with daddy issues Ameilia Donaghyand together they have to track down a serial killer who has been leaving clues for Rhyme before his next victims pay the ultimate price.
It comes complete with a twist ending to who the killer is (surprise, surprise, it's someone close to Lincoln but not the guy they've been playing off as an antagonist the whole film), political, power grandstanding by an overly ill-tempered higher authority (Played by Michael Rooker) and a somewhat sidekick with one name (played affectionately by Queen Latifah).
All of that should make it not work or at least work on the most baseline form it can, but surprisingly, "The Bone Collector" is a lot of fun.
Surely, no one will go into this and not put some immediate pieces together. The characters are a little heavy-handed in their tropes Washington's jaded Rhyme can sometimes come off as heavy-handed but, in other moments, truly heartfelt and interesting. Jolie also plays a jaded but good instinctual cop who possesses the ability to be the main character of the film AND eye candy, and together, they have a chemistry that works even if the film goes through some pains to make it seem like they won't at first.
Ed O'Neill, Luis Guzman, Queen Latifah, and Leland Orser round out the main cast with good performances but otherwise forgettable characters that come and go, shine when onscreen, and then are totally forgotten when off.
Michael Rooker plays Captain Howard Cheney with such great onscreen malice, but it is never really clear why this guy is so angry or disapproving of everyone he meets, and it is that duality of good performances less than great character that dominates "The Bone Collector"
The film follows Washington, Jolie, and Co. as they attempt to decipher clues left by a serial killer in NYC before he can brutally murder his next victim while dealing with personal drama, like Rhyme's physical condition leaving him primed to have a seizure at any moment and Jolie's childhood drama revolving (loosely) around her father, that serves to slow the film down a bit.
As I said earlier, it all ultimately works. There's enough intrigue in the film to keep audiences wondering what will come next and some nice fake-outs that make the heroes seem smart enough to figure out the crimes too late but not dumb enough so that the audience is guessing at it first.
With other films like "Along Came A Spider" and "Kiss The Girls" having the same basic structure, "The Bone Collector" still manages to hold its own. Having an overall younger pairing with Washington and Jolie helps to keep the film feeling urgent. Though Washington is confined to a for the majority of the film, there's still an electric presence to his character on screen. He's charming, witty and explosive. All traits that Washington excels at in any film, and it's his casting as Lincoln Rhyme that really brings it all together.
The same can be said of Angelina Jolie, who brings really believable street smarts to the character but never loses the sense of being overwhelmed and vulnerable. Another actress would play one over the other, but Jolie is able to balance both in every action that her character takes, and that consistency and chemistry with Denzel really glue the film together and pushes it forward.
Narratively, it isn't reinventing the wheel. A less-than-eagle-eyed viewer can probably spot the killer within the first half hour how we get there serves as a more fulfilling answer than what we're going to, and while I don't think that is the ultimate aim of the film, it works out in its favor.
While it manages to get its tropes to work for themselves, one or two fall flat. Rhyme's desire to complete his assisted suicide feels tacked on as somewhat pointless throughout the film, as does his seizures, which come and go with basically no consequence, only serving as a tool to sympathize for the character and a half-cocked love story between Rhymes and Donaghy doesn't ever fully come into fruition but the few moments where it rears its head are without much worth.
In the end, though, "The Bone Collector" comes out as being a fun crime thriller that is certainly worth the just under two-hour runtime. A group of good performances in a narratively interesting film is the base of what a movie like this should be.
Though not highly rated, I can say I'm surprised a sequel was never made. Washington and Jolie make a fun pair, and perhaps the growing dynamics of their continued relationship could have eeked out a couple of films that build upon the first...but that's a mystery for someone else to uncover.
My Verdict: 7.3/10
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