Untraceable

Feb 29 2008 Evening Chronicle

Our entire lives are stored online.

Names, addresses, bank details, medical records: all easily accessible with a few taps of a computer keyboard.

Greater freedom of information has given birth to the virtual criminal; menaces to society from credit card fraudsters to devious sexual predators who lurk in chat-rooms.

Untraceable is a disturbing thriller about a technical genius who uses the internet to torture his victims, and the specialist team charged with tracking down this mastermind before more blood is spilt.

Director Gregory Hoblit (Primal Fear, Fracture) is well suited to the material, gradually tightening the narrative screws to keep us on the edge of our seats.

He sustains our interest despite lapses in logic and occasional stupidity on the part of the characters required to drive the plot to its life or death finale.

Single mother Jennifer Marsh (Lane) is a seasoned FBI agent in the Portland office’s cybercrime division, waging war against hackers, fraudsters and paedophiles with her partner, Griffin Dowd (Hanks).

An anonymous tip-off leads Jennifer to killwithme.com and a live feed of the slow and painful death of a kitten. Her boss (Lewis) isn’t interested until the site reappears a week later, this time with a live stream of a restrained man bleeding to death.

Untraceable builds on a simple premise to deliver an entertaining thrill ride punctuated by decent set pieces and a nerve-racking encounter on a rain-swept bridge.

(18, 101 mins) Thriller. Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, Joseph Cross, Mary Beth Hurt, Perla Haney-Jardine

SWEARING :: NO SEX :: VIOLENCE