Review: Along Came a Spider [2001] - dir. Lee Tamahori

Based on the first James Paterson novel to feature criminal profiler Alex Cross, the film opens with a police trap that goes catastrophically wrong and forces Cross into early retirement. He spends his days mulling over what might have been and making model boats. At a local school for kids of the rich and famous, a teacher has kidnapped one of the prodigious pupils and begins sending Dr. Cross evidence of the abduction in the post. Not only does the kidnapper want to commit the crime of the century but he also wants to play mindgames with the successfully published psychologist.
After the worldwide success of the grisly yet superb Seven in 1995, Morgan Freeman obviously decided that he hadn't had enough of chasing serial killers and promptly made the much less satisfactory Kiss The Girls. Based on a James Paterson book, it somehow captured the public imagination and became a modest success. Now Freeman returns in another adaptation of a Paterson novel, playing the same character and chasing another psychokiller. Co-produced by Freeman and directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors), this is a much more successful venture than Kiss The Girls should have led to a respectable franchise for one of the world’s greatest living actors, sadly this doesn't seemed to have come to fruition.

After the worldwide success of the grisly yet superb Seven in 1995, Morgan Freeman obviously decided that he hadn't had enough of chasing serial killers and promptly made the much less satisfactory Kiss The Girls. Based on a James Paterson book, it somehow captured the public imagination and became a modest success. Now Freeman returns in another adaptation of a Paterson novel, playing the same character and chasing another psychokiller. Co-produced by Freeman and directed by Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors), this is a much more successful venture than Kiss The Girls should have led to a respectable franchise for one of the world’s greatest living actors, sadly this doesn't seemed to have come to fruition.

If thrillers with plots that twist and turn every ten minutes are your bag then you could do a lot worse than going to see Along Came A Spider. While it initially appears that we will have yet another drawn out battle of wills between criminal and cop, there are more than enough unexpected gear changes to keep the audience happy. Some of them are admittedly ludicrous but most of them are genuinely clever. And none of them can be revealed here. Suffice to say that it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that nothing should be taken for granted and very little is as it seems.

Freeman is, as usual, the star of the show. He emanates intelligence way beyond ordinary mortals and is an unusually generous actor, happy to give space for his co-stars to shine. This elegant and charming presence has few equals in the modern era. As his sidekick Monica Potter shows that she has more ability than the fluffy comedic roles she has previously played have indicated (Martha Meet Frank, Daniel And Lawrence, Patch Adams). Michael Wincott also delivers a suitably menacing performance as the deranged loon trying to outwit the pair of them.

Like the novel on which it is based, this is a terrifically enjoyable thriller which has no pretensions but to entertain. It’s certainly not high art and won’t feature on any Top Ten lists but it delivers excitement in spades. Hollywood rarely seems to make thrillers of this order anymore so sit back, enjoy it, and pray they make a third...