Part psychological thriller, part serial murder mystery, Suspect Zero is a mediocre film about an FBI Agent (Aaron Eckhart) who is trying to figure out who is behind a slew of murders. But there’s more than meets the eye here, as it turns out that the murdered victims are actually serial murderers themselves. How they’re being hunted down involves a top-secret psy-ops project named Icarus, involving “remote viewing“. (Note: why they have a picture of Andrew Carnegie at that site is beyond me!!) Anyways, so Ben Kingsley plays O’Ryan, the former Icarus viewer who is “stuck” and can’t make it stop – so he’s hunting down the killers.
Oh yeah – there’s a weird non-relationship with Carrie-Anne Moss, but whatever. Directed by E. Elias Merhige, who did Shadow of the Vampire, and written by Zak Penn (PCU, Behind Enemy Lines, and more – also a friend of a co-worker!), the film is a bit choppy. Apparently the script was written like 10 years ago, and has been in “rewrite committee” ever since, so I don’t blame Penn for the stunted pace of the film. While some visual moments were well done, and the acting was for the most part pretty good, the flow of the film was just such that I never really got into it.
One thing that really did help, though, was Clint Mansell’s score. Mixed in discreet 5.1 surround sound, Mansell really knew how to work the music – a combination of electronic, orchestral, and sound design – to push the emotions. If there’s anything I liked about the movie, it was the music, and that’s what I’ll be sure to recommend. Otherwise, pass.