Untraceable

Tough, Brutal Diane Lane Thriller With Something To Say About Modern Times
Untraceable certainly isn't a flawless thriller, but it's a solid, enjoyable one. It's not only a grisly, hard-at-times to watch film, but it has a brain, and definite opinions about how our culture seems to feed like pirahna on the misery and suffering of others using the immediacy of the internet.

Diane Lane plays an Portland FBI cybercrime investigator who finds herself after a gruesome killer who kidnaps his victims and tortures them to death on the internet, upping the ante as fast as he gets hits on his website. Lane's character is still grieving the death of her husband, a policeman killed in the line of duty, and this case quickly intrudes on her life with her mom and her young daughter.

There's no phony romance with her cop partner, no killer who is somehow connected to Lane, and she gets to save the day without a male cop taking over for her. There are plot aspects that don't ring true, but overall, this is a smart, engrossing film that has something to...

Surfing the Web for Murder
The Internet is capable of many things, some of them good, some of them bad; "Untraceable" is a film that shows not only its ugly side, but the ugly side of humanity, as well. This is an unnerving, suspenseful film that doesn't skimp on social commentary, and this is despite the fact that it hurts like hell to hear it. I knew that I was supposed to feel absolutely icky walking out of the theater, but I had no idea I'd feel that way as soon as the film started: it begins in a dimly lit, grimy basement, where an unseen person begins torturing a kitten. Using a camcorder, this person transmits this awful footage to a live video feed on the Internet. The website--called killwithme.com--is soon up and running, and under mysterious circumstances, it comes to the attention of Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane), an FBI agent from Portland, Oregon specializing in Internet criminals. She's obviously disgusted by a website showing a tortured animal, but she has yet to learn what it means or even how...

Entertaining
This movie has lots of actions, tense, as you would expect from a cyber-movie. The main plot is about a psychotic man who uses his taser to get the people to his "dungeon" and display the torture online. I thought the plot was brilliant. The way he does his torture where the lights increases as the viewers increases which practically baked the victim; the use of chemical (forgot what it was) on the next person; and the voice changer so the psycho can lure his victim - I thought those were all unique and high-concept.

Now adays, though, Feds can easily trace the IP address. In this movie, they have difficulty tracing the IP address of the user. I'm sure that is why the title is Untraceable. The computer forensic folks are a lot savier now. It would have added more mystery if the audience does not know who the person behind the keyboard. That would have given them something to solve.

I laughed at the ending, though. When the heroin broke loose of her...

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