"To Catch a Killer" a familiar but sturdy and involving police procedural

To Catch a Killer (2023)

Not every film has to reinvent the wheel. Case in point: “To Catch a Killer,” a slick, solidly acted procedural starring Shailene Woodley as a Clarice Starling-like figure. Without trying to be a copycat of “The Silence of the Lambs,” the film by writer-director Damián Szifron (2015’s wickedly entertaining “Wild Tales”) and co-writer Jonathan Wakeham may be familiar in nature, but it’s enough of an involving page-turner in film form that focuses on the investigation as well as the hard truths of the world we live in now.

“To Catch a Killer” opens on New Year's Eve in a deceptively understated manner, but with a mounting urgency. As fireworks go off before ringing in the new year in Baltimore, 29 random people—those at a rooftop party, one inside an elevator overlooking the city, and another at an outdoor skating rink—are taken out by an unseen sniper’s single bullet. This is one of a few startling sequences involving “our guy” (another massacre chillingly takes place at a mall) that Szifron stages with hold-your-breath tension without falling off the edge into exploitation. 

Woodley plays police officer Eleanor Falco, who takes the call during the terrorism architect’s fireworks-timed murders. She makes the mistake of running into a burning building without a gas mask, but Eleanor is savvy in other ways and notices details others do not. FBI investigator Geoffrey Lammark (Ben Mendelsohn) is assigned to the case and notices something in Eleanor, asking her to be a liaison between the bureau and the Baltimore police department and maybe catch this guy. They’re no Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman, but Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn do make a compelling pair. Initially, it’s hard to see what Lammark immediately notices in Eleanor, a recovering addict, but Woodley brings damaged humanity to a role that asks her to be reserved and withholding. Mendelsohn is very good, as he always is, and a scene in his home at the dinner table is lovely. Jovan Adepo gets lost in the mix as another agent, but Ralph Ineson makes a mark as the killer, resisting over-the-top histrionics for a calm but formidable presence. 

Szifron makes interesting choices with the camera, whether it’s putting us on edge with a topsy-turvy cityscape from the very beginning or watching Eleanor swim laps upside down. A lot of procedurals can be by-the-numbers, and others are a welcome addition to thrillers from the ‘90s. “To Catch a Killer” is more of the latter when the execution is sturdy, and that’s not a bad thing.

Grade: B -

Vertical is releasing “To Catch a Killer” (119 min.) in select theaters on April 21, 2023.