Untraceable

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "Untraceable" (Screen Gems) is a grimly unpleasant thriller concerning an Internet killer who tortures kidnapped victims on a Web site he calls "killswithme.com." (His first victim -- not counting the cat dispatched in the opening scenes -- has those words artistically carved into his chest.)

But there's more. The site is rigged in such a way that the more sensation-seeking cybersurfers who log on the faster the victim will die. It's dedicated FBI cybercrime agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) who's assigned the task of identifying and capturing the criminal. The stakes are raised when it becomes clear the killer has graduated from feline victims to the human kind.

Marsh is also a widowed mom (her agent husband killed in the line of duty), which gives us the queasy feeling something may soon happen to her sweet but blithely innocent little girl, Annie (Perla Haney-Jardine), and elderly mother, Stella (Mary Beth Hurt). This fear becomes all the more plausible when it is revealed that the killer is based, like the FBI unit, in Portland, Ore., and seems set on making things personal with his pursuers.

The seen-it-all-before setup is about as compelling as a TV police procedural, often less so. The killer's identity is revealed way too early. And the conclusion -- with its revelations of the killer's motivations -- is reminiscent of many other like-minded plots.

This is the kind of film during which you spend most of the time fearing the worst. There are some scary moments to be sure, and torture scenes are tough to watch (and will be reason enough for many to avoid the film), but on the whole they are mercifully short.

On the other hand, Lane's intense and committed performance, good work from Billy Burke and Colin Hanks (Tom's son) as her task force cronies, detectives Eric Box and Griffin Dowd, respectively, elevate the material a notch or two.

Some barbs directed against today's voyeuristic public pepper the otherwise unremarkable script of Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker and Allison Burnett, adding a dollop or two of social significance. Lane's energetic agitation aside, director Gregory Hoblit's film, though not exactly dull, rarely rises above the commonplace.

The film contains some relatively brief but gruesome scenes of torture and other violence, and some profanity and rough language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops