neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Suspect Zero
	E. Elias Merhige Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Carrie-Anne Moss, Harry Lennix 2004		The landmark television series "The X-Files" haunts "Suspect Zero," a murky, feature-length hybrid of paranormal thriller and crime drama that dabbles in the fantastic and the speculative, with scattered results. As it happens, agents Mulder and Scully of "The X-Files" were far more engaging than their counterparts in "Suspect Zero," a pariah FBI operative and his skeptical partner on the trail of an extraordinary perp. Thomas Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart of "The Missing") is sent to a backwater office of the agency after seriously screwing up an assignment. His attractive colleague Fran Kulok (Carrie-Anne Moss of "The Matrix") is wary and judgmental. They have issues, but soon, they're forced to team up in pursuit of an alleged serial killer (Ben Kingsley, in a methodical, creepy performance). Since his current supervisor (Harry Lennix) neither likes nor respects him, Mackelway has to cope with company mistrust as well as his own insecurities. Even worse, someone has somehow reached into Mackelway's mind. The film postulates the authenticity of remote viewing — a kind of psychic profiling that's used here to track down the most-wanted. It's an idea with a lot of potential, only "Suspect Zero" fudges the mechanics of the process, never explaining how and why someone shows a propensity for the mental technique and how it's taught or cultivated.