Along Came a Spider

ALONG CAME A SPIDER

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: violence, language

Rated:

Thrillers. If you have seen one, you have seen them all. That's the general creed many take, but doesn't live up to all pulse-pounding kidnapping capers. Along Came a Spider may have its predictable moments, but it's darn good fun while you're getting there.

Megan Rose (Mika Boorem) lives what seems to be an uncomplicated life. She has a crush on one of the boys in her private school. She likes to send encoded messages to him through the computer when she's supposed to be working on math problems. And... she has a secret service agent assigned to her. With her father (Michael Moriarty) a local senator and popular businessman, it is imperative that Megan be protected from outside forces. In command of her security team is the young but ambitious Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter). But not even Jezzie's careful watch can prevent the unthinkable... when one of the professors knocks Megan senseless and smuggles her out beneath the watch of the secret service. Humiliated, Jezzie is suspended and the agency calls in another detective to head up the investigation.

Having not handled a case since his last one went wrong and wound up in the death of one of his partner, Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) is not eager to return to law enforcement. Political influence draws him into the hunt for Megan, whose kidnapper seems to have a much larger agenda. He has set up a series of complex games and clues for the police to follow, but Alex believes his intention is not to ransom her, but to use her as bait. With Megan in the command of a psychopathic madman, her parents are putting the pressure on the department to get her back at all costs. Alex and Jezzie must put aside their differences and work together to solve a crime that is becoming more complicated by the minute.

There was a lot to like about Along Came a Spider, because of its cunning premise. It is not just a case of kidnapping any more than one of extortion or murder. The intelligence of the kidnapper and the series of clues he leaves for them to follow ultimately accumulate in several dramatic climax sequences. It requires more than one viewing to figure out some of its subtler twists. Michael Moriarty makes so few film appearances nowadays that it was interesting to see him playing the role of a concerned father. Monica Potter is quite effective both in being tearful and intimidating, and as one of my favorite young actresses, Mika Boorem goes through the appropriate range of emotions. I particularly enjoyed the second half, when the kidnapper forced Alex to complete a series of tests before granting him information, but nothing can top a near-the-end sequence where the kidnapper plays target practice with the little girl.

The acting is solid and the plot reasonable, but involved is a fair amount of language and violence. The f-word is used a half dozen times, along with an extremely crude expression for the male anatomy, and one GD. The only sexual content comes from a set-up at the beginning of the film, in which a female detective leads a suspect on. He attempts to force her to give him oral sex before she pulls a gun on him. Some blood spatters when people are shot and killed; a woman is strangled. Most of it is rather low key and abnormally tame for the genre. I liked it very much, and was able to tape an edited-for-television version off cable that removes its more domineering issues.