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Movie Review: I Know Who Killed Me

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I Know Who Killed Me (TriStar, 2007)
Directed by Chris Sivertson
Written by Jeff Hammond

Take away my reviewing card; get me fired from this site (Of course since I don’t get paid, I guess I won’t be any worse for wear), but I kind of liked I Know Who Killed Me. Yes, this is the same film starring party girl, Lindsay Lohan, from this past summer that is arguably the worst reviewed film of the year, and maybe the biggest dud at the box office.

I have no issue with most critics per se, and I don’t believe that critics in general have a deep-seated desire to trash anything they have preconceived notions of hating. But sometimes I wonder about a leading man/woman’s pedigree not being taken into affect. A few weeks before this film came out, a wonderful Kevin Costner movie, Mr. Brooks, was released and panned by just about everyone with the exception of a select few including The Projectionist. It’s hard to not look at all the negativity and think that Costner’s recent slump didn’t factor in.

I Know Who Killed Me has media darling, Lindsay Lohan, trying to cement herself as an adult actor who can swear, smoke, drink, strip, and fuck just like every other attention-seeking actress before her. But with her whirlwind media circus from the past couple of years (DUI’s, in and out of rehabs, etc.) she didn’t stand a chance. Hell, even the film’s title set itself up for clever witticisms like “I Know Who Killed My Career.”

Lohan plays Aubrey Fleming, a small town girl who has aspirations of being the next great mystery writer. Early on in the film, she disappears and is later found missing a hand and a leg. The police quickly realize she is the second victim of an up and coming serial killer.

Assuming Aubrey escaped, the police are hoping that she can pinpoint who it is that abducted her, but when Aubrey claims she is in fact Dakota Moss, an exotic dancer, they discover they have a completely different mystery on their hands. Is it multiple personalities or a delusional state? A confused Dakota must now figure out how it is her and this look-a-like co-exist, and who the hell abducted Aubrey in the first place.

Chris Sivertson previously directed a twisted tale called The Lost, based on the Jack Ketchum novel that has yet to get a decent release in the States. I had to track down a bootleg copy, and it was well worth it. I Know Who Killed Me might not be the strong follow-up I was hoping for from this talented newcomer, but it’s a nifty little thriller in its own right, and has a pretty cool mystery at its center.

Lohan, who I’ve always considered an overrated actress, doesn’t do much service for the film by walking through most of it with a dazed look. I wouldn’t be surprised if the on-set rumors of her showing up hungover and still drunk on occasion were true. However, she gets better as the film progresses and the main storyline is so intriguing that she’s not able to ruin it.

Still, it’s hard to knock Lindsay for taking a chance on a more serious role like this. This isn’t Herbie territory, and she comes off a lot better than Elisha Cuthbert did in the torturous (to sit through) Captivity.

Sivertson also tries to make the film a little more surreal and trippy than it needs to be. The overuse of the color blue gets annoying after awhile, and at the same time makes this the most obvious release ever for Blu-Ray. He seems to be going for David Lynch-type tactics; it’s hard to compete with Lynch on the weirdness scale, and Sivertson proves that quickly.

So, while the film is by no means outstanding, it’s definitely well worth watching. It’s got a cynically visual landscape that serves the overall mystery well, and maybe I’ve grown senile, but I didn’t see the twist coming at least in the form it ended up in. Jeff Hammond wrote a very tight script that should hold up on further inspection, and thankfully he never let up on the gritty nature of the proceedings. Where a film like Saw IV cheats the viewer just to get to its clever ending, Hammond’s script is so carefully constructed, you feel rewarded when the final moments happen.

If you’re in the mood for a twisted thriller and a solid mystery, you could do a lot worse than I Know Who Killed Me.

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Sam Loomis

Comments

Comment from Chet Baker
Time: March 12, 2008, 4:25 pm

THumbs up!

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