The Factory

Starring: John Cusack, Jennifer Carpenter, Dallas Roberts, Mae Whitman, Sonya Walger, Gary Anthony Williams
Directed by: Morgan O'Neill
Rating: R
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
2012

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A police officer (John Cusack) obsessed with tracking down a serial killer faces his worst nightmare when his daughter (Mae Whitman) is kidnapped by him.

Review:
Tim: The Factory is a movie that just makes me sad. I remember when I first heard about the film- I was really, really excited. I'm always up for a good cop/serial killer film, and this movie featured three cast members I love- John Cusack (in just about everything), Jennifer Carpenter (from "Dexter") and Sonya Walger (from "Lost"). I was looking forward to this film. And then, unfortunately, it basically gets no theatrical release (it was nearly nonexistent), and almost goes straight to DVD. That's a major, major bummer for me.

While I think this film deserved a better fate than it received, I can't claim this is an especially good film. It's completely average in every sense (however, far worse films get full theatrical releases every year). I was disappointed because I wanted this movie to be better. It does do a few things quite well, but falls apart at the end.

I was surprised how redundant this whole movie felt. This might be why the whole serial killer movie has almost vanished from cineplexes in recent years- the story has been done to death, and audiences feel like we've "seen it all." For most of the film, the story follows the typical storyline you would expect- there's a mysterious serial killer who can't be caught, an obsessed cop determined to bring him to justice and haunted by the victims, and a few twists and turns thrown into the mix. However, early on, I found myself enjoying the film in a lowered-expectations kind of way (which basically means I thought the movie would suck, and was pleasantly surprised it wasn't sucking as hard as I feared).

The cast really does help. I love John Cusack and would watch him in anything. I can't really say he gave a very inspired performance- it felt like he didn't have high expectations for this film. Still, a half-focused Cusack is still better than a lot of actors out there. I also enjoyed pairing Cusack with Carpenter. Carpenter certainly knows her way around serial killers, and I thought she brought a good level of seriousness to the film. Sonya Walger is Cusack's wife, and is criminally underused in the film. Mae Whitman gave a decent performance as the kidnapped daughter. What surprised me the most was Dallas Roberts. I like him on "The Walking Dead", but was completely unprepared for his performance here. On that show, he's typically fairly meek and blends into the background. Here, he gets to display his psychopathic bad side. It gave me chills to hear his kidnap victims call him "Daddy". He really gave a frightening, strong performance. In a cast of decent actors, Roberts manages to outshine them all. He's actually the best reason to see this film.

The film has a few suspenseful moments, but these are buried in between a cliche-filled script. I won't go into too much detail, but this film feels like a hodgepodge of events from dozens of serial killer movies. When the movie does throw an unexpected twist, it elicited not a "What????" but a "Huh?" I suppose the twist was slightly unpredictable, but it just felt odd to me, and it resulted in an unsatisfying conclusion.

While The Factory is certainly not a good movie, it isn't a terrible film, either. There are some legitimately nerve-wracking moments during the middle of the film, and it moves at a decent enough clip so the 108 minute run time doesn't feel too long. I really wanted to like this movie more, but the end product is lackluster.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Silence of the Lambs, The Contract, The Ice Harvest