To Catch a Killer
Cert: 18 ★★✩✩✩

In 2015, Jewish Argentinian director Damián Szifron’s film Wild Tale earned him an Oscar nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 87th Academy Awards.

Szifron, who also won a Bafta that same year, is now back with a crime thriller starring Divergent film series alum Shailene Woodley and acclaimed Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn.

Woodley plays Eleanor Falco, a talented but troubled rookie police officer at the Baltimore police department.

After finding herself at the centre of a mass shooting by a mystery assailant, Eleanor is recruited by Geoffrey Lammark (Mendelsohn), the FBI’s chief investigator, to help profile and track down the killer.

tO cATCH A kILLER (4)

Jovan Adepo in To Catch A Killer (Vertical Entertainment)

As police forces and the FBI launch a nationwide manhunt, they are thwarted at every turn by the killer.

Battling with her own demons, Eleanor struggles to convince those around her that they are missing a vital part of the picture.

This is a fairly innocuous, if disappointing offering from Szifron in his first English-speaking picture. To Catch A Killer does a fairly good job of presenting an interesting premise, but is let down by disjointed execution.

With more than a hint of The Silence of The Lambs running through the storyline, Szifron and co-writer Jonathan Wakeham present Eleanor as a modern-day Clarice Starling, but without any of the intrigue or psychological angst.

Tonally, the film struggles between wanting to be a dark mystery thriller or a procedural cop movie.

There are some very good performances here, and it is always a joy to watch Woodley in any role, but even her huge talent and understated delivery can’t save this lacklustre offering from a filmmaker who could do so much better.