Movie Type: Psychological Thriller, Police Detective Film
Themes: Kidnapping, Star Detectives
Main Cast: Morgan Freeman, Monica Potter, Michael Wincott, Dylan Baker, Mika Boorem
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Morgan Freeman returns as forensic psychologist Dr. Alex Cross in this thriller based on the novel by James Patterson (whose work also formed the basis of the hit Kiss the Girls). Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott) is a brilliant but remorseless psychopath who has landed a teaching position at an exclusive private school in Washington, D.C. Using his extensive knowledge of kidnapping (he's taught a class on Charles Lindbergh), Soneji abducts one of his students - Megan (Mika Boorem), whose father Hank Rose (Michael Moriarty) is a United States senator. Ollie MacArthur (Dylan Baker), the detective investigating the case, has strong words for Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter), the Secret Service agent who mistakenly let Megan slip through her fingers. But when the kidnapper contacts Dr. Cross, the psychologist is brought in on the case, and Cross seeks out Flannigan, who he believes might have a valuable insight into the case. Soon, Cross and Flannigan come to the terrible realization that this crime only represents the tip of the iceberg for the ruthless Soneji. Along Came a Spider also features Penelope Ann Miller, Jay O. Sanders, and Kim Hawthorne. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The novel by best-selling author James Patterson becomes this thriller that, in the chronology of the writer's series of books featuring the character of Alex Cross, is actually a prequel to Kiss the Girls (1997). Morgan Freeman brings his usual intelligent gravity to FBI Special Agent-In-Charge role he's assayed once before, while Michael Wincott, always so memorable in villain roles, plays his genius kidnapper with a nervous, detached reserve that's a thoughtful contrast to the expected over-the-top histrionics of most cinematic antagonists. His motivations are never made clear or believable, but Wincott's Gary Soneji is sufficiently frightening in his off-kilter, wounded way. Jezzie Flannigan, as portrayed by Monica Potter, is more problematic. The actress plays the tough, smart, morally conflicted Secret Service agent as a wide-eyed runway model at best, an emotionless automaton at worst. It could be to throw the audience off in preparation for a third-act twist, but Potter lacks authenticity in a part that should have been played by a seasoned performer (such as Susan Sarandon) to provide a mature, full-bodied foil for the daunting presence of Freeman. As for the story itself, major changes from the source novel may leave Patterson fans enraged, but director Lee Tamahori provides his underrated, skillful service, keeping the pace brisk and the unanswered questions properly glossed-over. Not as artistically nutritious as The Silence of the Lambs or as good as its predecessor, Along Came a Spider is just good enough, never quite reaching the heights that everyone involved is capable of, existing instead as a proper, adequately entertaining example of its genre. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Sandy Cochrane - Art Director, Denise Chamian - Casting, Marty Hornstein - Co-producer, Sanja Milkovic Hays - Costume Designer, Jim Brebner - First Assistant Director, Lee Tamahori - Director, Neil Travis - Editor, Morgan Freeman - Executive Producer, Marty Hornstein - Executive Producer, Jerry Goldsmith - Composer (Music Score), Mark Isham - Composer (Music Score), Rosalina Da Silva - Makeup, Ida Random - Production Designer, Matthew Leonetti - Cinematographer, David Brown - Producer, Joe Wizan - Producer, Elizabeth Wilcox - Set Designer, Eric Batut - Sound/Sound Designer, Chuck Jeffreys - Stunts, Lewis Colick - Screenwriter, Marc DeMoss - Screenwriter, Bill Westenhofer - Visual Effects Supervisor, Stephen Flick - Supervising Sound Editor, Elizabeth Wilcox - Set Decorator, James Patterson - Book Author
Soneji contacts Cross by phone and alerts him to the fact one of Megan's sneakers is in the detective's mailbox, proving he's the kidnapper. Cross deduces the man is obsessed with the 1932 Lindbergh kidnapping and hopes to become as infamous as Bruno Hauptmann by committing a new "Crime of the Century" that might be discussed by Cross in one of his true crime books. Megan's kidnapping proves to be only part of Soneji's real plan: to kidnap the son of the Russian president, guaranteeing himself greater infamy.
After Cross and Flannigan foil his second kidnapping plot, a supposed call from the kidnapper demands that Cross deliver a ransom of $10 million dollars in diamonds by following an intricate maze of calls made to public phone booths scattered throughout the city. Cross ultimately tosses the gems out the window of a rapidly moving Metro train to a figure standing by the tracks. When Soneji later arrives at Flannigan's home and confronts Cross after disabling Jezzie with a taser, the detective realizes the kidnapper is unaware of the ransom demand and delivery. Soneji tries to leave with Flannigan but Cross kills him.
Cross becomes suspicious and realizes that someone discovered Soneji long before his plot came to fruition. After searching Flannigan's home computer, he finds enough evidence to prove that Jezzie and her fellow Secret Service agent, Ben Devine (Billy Burke), used Soneji as a pawn in their own plot. He tracks them down to a secluded farmhouse, where Flannigan has murdered Devine and is now intent on eliminating Megan Rose. Cross saves Rose and shoots Flannigan in the heart, killing her.
Production
One of the primary elements of the book screenwriter Marc Moss eliminated from his script was the fact that Soneji is actually a mild-mannered suburban husband and father suffering from dissociative identity disorder resulting from having been abused as a child. After a lengthy trial for kidnapping and several murders not included in the film, he is found guilty but remanded to a mental institution to serve his sentence. Also missing from the film is a romantic relationship shared by Cross and Jezzie, her trial and eventual execution by lethal injection, and the discovery of Maggie, hidden away with a native Bolivian family near the Andes Mountains, two years after her kidnapping.
Box office
In the US, the film opened in 2,530 theaters and earned $16,712,407 in its opening weekend. It eventually grossed $74,078,174 in the US and $31,100,387 in international markets for a total box office of $105,178,561[1].
Along Came a Spider received a mostly negative response from critics. Elvis Mitchell of the New York Times called the film an "overplotted, hollow thriller, which crams in so much exposition that characters speak in fetid hunks for what seems like minutes at a time ... But Spider couldn't be better served than it is by Mr. Freeman, whose prickly smarts and silken impatience bring believability to a classless, underdeveloped thriller ... Still, he is wasted in this impersonal, barely ept thriller."[2]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated, "A few loopholes I can forgive. But when a plot is riddled with them, crippled by them, made implausible by them, as in Along Came a Spider, I get distracted. I'm wondering, since Dr. Alex Cross is so brilliant, how come he doesn't notice yawning logical holes in the very fabric of the story he's occupying? ... The film contains two kinds of loopholes: (1) Those that emerge when you think back on the plot, and (2) Those that seem like loopholes at the time, and then are explained by later developments that may contain loopholes of their own ... There are places in this movie you just can't get to from other places in this movie."[3]
Wesley Morris of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "Beyond the B-movie excursions that dry up after the first 20 minutes, Spider is a mess of motives left unclear and characters left dangling ... Tamahori has a tough time wringing a drop of original suspense from any of this stuff."[4]
Robert Koehler of Variety felt "the very characteristics that have made Cross so appealing, particularly his mind-tickling abilities to assess and outmaneuver his criminal opponents, are reduced here to the most fundamental and predictable level ... As reliable as any actor in Hollywood, Freeman delivers the requisite gravitas, but the bland script curtails any personal touches he might have inserted were his sleuth character unraveling a truly vexing mystery."[5]
