If you have not seen the original French version of this film then you might actually enjoy his remake. However, this film is a shining example of the bad Hollywood remake. It takes the original film’s premise removes the character moments, crams in a false love story and tacks on a happy ending.
The original was a character-based thriller — the remake is a serial killer cliché. The film begins with a brief introduction to Barney Cousins (Jeff Bridges, THE BIG LEBOWSKI), a frumpish science teacher who is meticulously planning a kidnapping and possible murder. Then we meet Jeff Harriman (Kiefer Sutherland, LOST BOYS) and Diane Shaver (Sandra Bullock, SPEED) as they are on the road on vacation.
This episode for the most part plays the same as in the original; however, the art and character defining moments have been sucked from it. In the original, I cared about the Diane character, so I had an invested interest in the Jeff character’s dogged search for her when she vanishes.
Where the film most differs from the original is with the Rita Baker character (Nancy Travis, SO I MARRIED AN AX MURDERER). In the French film, she is a minor character that is used to define the Jeff character better. Here, she is a main character even assuming the role of the protagonist toward the end. The remake takes the least interesting part of the original — the Jeff and Rita relationship — and brings it to the forefront.
In the original, one could say the film focuses on the Jeff and Barney characters equally, but the remake makes Jeff the clear lead and paints Barney more as a boogey man. That’s the main problem with the remake’s new ending, which shifts focus from the real story to Rita.
The remake does tighten some areas nicely and has some nice touches in the new ending, but it never engaged me like the original. The Hollywood film returns the original director George Sluizer to the material, but has Todd Graff (THE BEAUTICIAN AND THE BEAST) adapt the original book. This is where I think everything went wrong. Graff seems not to get what made the original film great and forces the story into a traditional serial killer formula. The great foreshadowing speech about the dream of the golden egg (the book was called The Golden Egg) was even removed. And let’s not get started on turning a tragic ending into a happy one.
For Sluizer, his direction lacks the flare of the original even in scenes that are relatively the same as the French version. Another problem is that Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu’s performance as the killer in the original is so good that Bridges looks like an awkward imitator here. Bridges isn’t bad, but he’s not as subtle. I think the two films should be taught in a film class as a shining example of how a story can and cannot work. If you’re interested in seeing both films I recommend watching the remake first, because you’ll only get angry if you watch the original beforehand. But what I really recommend is to skip the remake and only watch the original.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
