Most everyone has heard of animals that will gnaw off their own limbs, when caught in traps, to ensure their survival. Animals, of course, are not alone in their will to survive. In the past several months, there was the case of a hiker who, upon finding his arm pinned beneath a boulder in the remote boonies, cut off his limb with a knife to make sure he could escape and live to tell his remarkable tale.
I'm not sure if such stories inspired newcomers James Wan and Leigh Whannell to write "Saw," but it's a look at how far people will go to stay alive. Yet, rather than making a psychological drama featuring a man pinned in the wilderness (or a bunch of cannibalistic soccer players in the snowy mountains as was the case in "Survive!"), they've set their protagonists chained on opposite sides of a filthy urban bathroom in this serial killer thriller.
The result is a film with a lot of potential and even some flourishes of decent and imaginative filmmaking, but also too many distracting directorial embellishments and enough iceberg-sized plot holes to sink a fleet of Titanics. Starting out with what looks like it's going to be a filmed, one-set stage play, the film eventually breaks free of its stagy environs with a number of flashback scenes.
They're designed to break up what might otherwise be a monotonous outing as well as deliver exposition, clues as to what's occurring and other material leading up to what's supposed to be the big, twist-filled finale.
The first plot holes, inconsistencies and lapses in logic occur in the opening scene, with some apparent right away and others only so in hindsight. We start with a man waking up underwater in a filled tub (which obviously creates the first problem -- especially when viewed in the context of much later revelations -- unless the character is really Aquaman's alter ego). After going into air-breathing mode, he finds that he's chained to one side of the filthy bathroom, just like another man on the opposite side of the large room.
A third man doesn't seem to have been so fortunate -- he's lying in a pool of blood with a gun and microcassette recorder in his hands. The men discover that they possess a lone bullet, one key and two tapes upon which they've been left prerecorded clues about what's occurring. From that and some flashbacks referenced by one character, we soon realize that a deranged maniac is responsible.
He's the usual creative movie type who's constructed elaborate traps from which his victims can escape only if they take drastic steps, many of which we see in gruesome detail. The fact that he does so not so much out of direct revenge or spite but rather as a valuable life lesson will obviously remind some viewers of the far superior "Seven" (with Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and a killer fond of the seven deadly sins).
Despite the similarities and lack of novelty, the premise here is decent, but not fully realized. Beyond Wan's occasional music video style direction, the aforementioned plot holes (that I can't really go into without giving away the ending that, by the way, is ludicrous if you stop for a moment and really think about it) and lapses in logic and believability, the film suffers from being too clever for its own good.
Rather I should say trying to be too clever as it's obvious the novice filmmakers have concocted an elaborate-sounding script. Despite all of their efforts, however, the result isn't remotely scary (gross, disturbing and too much for sensitive viewers, yes, but frightening or really that suspenseful, no).
Of course, all of the distracting problems don't help matters, nor does some of the bad acting. While Whannell ("The Matrix Reloaded") is okay as one of the potential victims, Cary Elwes ("Ella Enchanted," "Twister") delivers what's arguably one of the worst performances of his career. Beyond being miscast, he over-emotes and simply feels out of place from start to finish. Due to that grating effort, we never really feel for his character and that thus diminishes our involvement in the story.
Danny Glover ("The Cookout," "The Royal Tenenbaums") is also present as an unhinged cop hot on the trail of the killer, but his performance feels like a parody of his work in those "Lethal Weapon" films. Monica Potter ("Along Came a Spider," "Head Over Heels") plays a damsel in distress, but can't do much with the character other than perform under standard operating procedure (looking scared and then acting dumb in the face of danger).
While the film works to a degree if you just go along for the grisly ride and don't think about what's occurring (especially in the beginning when the mystery elements are introduced), the best thrillers are those that stand up to certain litmus tests, such as logic and credibility. And since it fails those in regards to the twist at the end and other events leading up to it, this effort ends up less effective and smart than it initially seems and probably could have been. "Saw" rates as a 4 out of 10.
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