Michael
Cooper is a lot like the retired judge in Hardcastle & McCormick,
but without the red sports car. His methods for curing recidivism are also a
lot more permanent. Unfortunately, he will be forced to work with the regular
cops when the young woman he uses as bait is kidnapped by a serial killer in
David Raymond’s Night Hunter, which opens this Friday in New York.
Much
like Hardcastle, Cooper is a former judge, but personal tragedy drove him to wage
vigilante tactics against online predators. His sarcastic ward Lara is only too
willing to help him, but the latest creep they try to ensnare turns out to be
even more prepared than they are. As a result, the panicked Cooper is forced to
request help from local Minnesota police force. Fortunately, Det. Aaron
Marshall quickly grasps the gravity of the situation and has the wherewithal to
find and rescue Lara, along with another surviving victim.
However,
the capture of Simon Stulls does not close the case. Frankly, the twitchy
headcase does not seem to be functioning at a sufficiently high level to plan
and execute his crimes. The out-of-town profiler (with whom Marshall has some
awkward history) is convinced Stulls has more capable multiple personalities
buried within him, but there are soon all too tragic reasons to suspect he had
an outside accomplice.
Night
Hunter features
an impressive cast of name-actors, including Henry Cavill, Sir Ben Kingsley,
Nathan Fillon, and Stanley Tucci, all playing cops or vigilantes. Obviously,
the bad guy or bad guys must be pretty sinister, since they can elude the
combined forces of Superman, Gandhi, Castle, and the host of the Hunger Games.
In fact, Brendan Fletcher is extraordinarily creepy, even downright unsettling,
as the psychotic Stulls. It is a terrific serial killer performance, especially
in light of later plot twists.
Cavill
is also quite good as Marshall, especially during scenes with Emma Tremblay,
who is a real standout as the daughter who constantly tries to draw him out and
keep him grounded. Tucci plays Commissioner Harper like a typical Stanley Tucci
character, but that is always fun to watch. Kingsley humanizes Cooper, while developing
some intriguing surrogate father-daughter chemistry with Eliana Jones, as Lara.
On the other hand, neither Alexandra Daddario or her profiler character really
bring anything interesting to the table.
In
all honesty, Night Hunter is an over-achieving serial killer thriller
that deserves more attention than its less-than-blockbuster release will
probably garner. Raymond steadily builds the tension, while cinematographer Michael
Barrett (who also lensed the uber-glossy Takers) gives it all a sinister
sheen. It is a little over-stuffed with characters (don’t blink when Fillon is
on-screen), but it succeeds quite nicely as a work of dark suspense.
Recommended for fans of psycho-killer thrillers, Night Hunter opens this
Friday (9/6) in New York, at the Cinema Village.
