The Perfect Witness (2007)

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Directed by: Thomas Dunn
Starring: Wes Bentley, Mark Borkowski, Joanne Baron and Beth Grant

When I first got the email offer to review The Perfect Witness I immediately accepted. I mean, I RARELY turn down the opportunity to see a new film, especially if it's something I had not heard of before. I have come across a lot of really cool films that I would have otherwise never even heard of thanks to running this site. After I accepted the offer to review the film I hopped on over to IMDB.com to get a little background info on the film. That's when I got nervous. Someone left an extremely unfavorable review that pretty much made me wish I had passed on the film... but luckily it was too late to change my mind. Once I got the DVD and popped it in(with a certain amount of dread) I was actually pleasantly suprised by The Perfect Witness.

The film stars Wes Bentley(American Beauty) as Mickey, an amateur filmmaker who manages to track down an active serial killer named James Lemac(Borkowski) and film Lemac killing one of his victims. With the footage Mickey manages to blackmail Lemac into agreeing to be the subject of Mickey's latest documentary which Mickey feels will be his ticket to fame as a director. Since no one has ever been able to make films about serial killers until after they have been captured Mickey feels that catching his subject while he is still killing victims will be the edge he needs to be recognized. One thing that Mickey seems to forget though is that his subject is in fact a serial killer. At first Lemac seems to cooperate, albeit grudgingly, since Mickey promises to only release the film if and when Lemac is captured, though he does promise his partner/editor that he intends to turn the footage over to the police as soon as he gets what he needs from the killer. Slowly though, Lemac begins to exert more and more control over Mickey involving him in the murderer's world first hand.

Things begin to go downhill for Mickey when his mother tells him about the man she recently met who complimented her on her eyes and took her picture. Lemac's trademark is that he takes the eyes of his victims. Mickey makes the connection and heads straight for the police station to turn report Lemac and try to protect himself and his mother. Of course, though, as soon as Mickey walks into the station his cell phone rings...and yes, it's Lemac... and yes, he has Mickey's mother. After killing Mickey's partner and kidnapping his mother Lemac pushes Mickey to the breaking point by tricking him into helping Lemac get into the apartment of his latest victim and forces Mickey to video tape the murder using Mickey's mother as leverage to make sure Mickey does as he is told. Slowly Mickey starts to unravel the pieces of what makes Lemac such a monster and is able to locate the source of his urderous rage, Lemac's own abusive mother, who Lemac belives to be long dead. Lemac mother tortured him as a child leaving horrific scares all over his body. It becomes clear that Lemac kills women over and over again that have his mother's eyes in a symbolic act of killing his mother repeatedly since he was never able to make her pay for what she did to him. Once Mickey proves to Lemac that she is still alive Mickey believes he can force Lemac to end his own rage and in the process stop killing innocent women. The question that becomes will Lemac have the strength to stand up to his hateful mother?

The Perfect Witness is an interesting twist on the serial killer story. It sort of draws in elements of our American infatuation with "realilty" television and the power a video camera gives people with today's user powered web 2.0(i.e. YouTube). Is the film COMPLETELY original? No. The elements of Lemac's mother being so abusive to the point of being a complete sociopath which in turn creates her murderous son are fairly well tred plot points. What The Perfect Witness does is present the tried and true story elements in a new way with the addition of Mickey's ever present video camera. While The Perfect Witness does not create the complete edge of your seat tension of a film like Silence of the Lambs(especially when Hannibal Lecture escapes from custody wearing a skin mask!) it is CERTAINLY worth checking out. I think I actually kind of lucked out reading the negative review like I did before seeing the film. I went in with extremely low expectations and found The Perfect Witness to be a suprisingly interesting film. It probably woul dhave been better served if it had the luxury of higher caliber acting but it still entertains none the less!




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