Saw

James Wan 2004

Two men wake up captives in a bathroom that’s straight out of the very worse of ‘ How Clean is your House’ with a dead body in a pool of blood lying between them. Snatched from their ordinary lives they are now pawns in the sick game of a rather twisted serial killer nicknamed Jigsaw. One of the men, Dr Gordon must kill the other man to prevent the killer murdering his wife and daughter, but can he do it? Oh decisions, decisions!

Well this is the film you’ve heard so much about recently, the film that probably had you uttering ‘I want to see “saw”…makes me laugh every time. Some say it’s the best film they’ve seen in ages and some say its pure overrated pantomime. I am somewhat stuck in the middle.

I think my main issue with the film is the acting and I am sorry to say the main culprit is Cary Elwes, who was brilliant in “The Princess Bride” and his brief appearances in ‘The X-Files’ (in fact quite a few ‘X-files’ actors appear in this film). Here he unfortunately borders on hammy making his turn as Doctor in danger none too plausible. However he is not the only one, Danny Glover just looked tired as if he was press ganged into this by his agent. Leigh Whannell who plays Adam the other man chained in the bathroom and who also wrote the screenplay, deemed it best to try and inject some humour into things with a few one-liners…oh dear. Surely if your life depended on you convincingly playing dead, you’d do a little better than some sixth form drama gurning. If you’re making a dark disturbing film stick to it, no need to attempt to lighten proceedings.

But these slight flaws are nothing when you consider the sheer inventiveness of the story, a serial killer who finds ways for his victims to kill themselves and other people (reverse bear trap anyone?!), and some truly magnificent twists at the end. These brief glimpses of crimes are quite shocking, and filmed in such a way I felt I was watching a Marilyn Manson video.

While not being the masterpiece that many have suggested, it is something a little different and dare I say again it is inventive and didn’t have me second-guessing the plot in the first five minutes. Also gets you asking yourself how far you would go to save your own life. A nice disturbing little film that doesn’t have a happy ending…woohoo!