Jessica Shepard (Ashley Judd), a San Francisco police officer just promoted to homicide inspector (detective), is searching for a serial killer of men. She is ordered to see the department psychiatrist because of excessive force used in subduing a vicious and creepy rapist who held her at knife-point at film's beginning. She is a troubled character with an attitude. Her late father George, also a police officer, supposedly went berserk and killed his promiscuous wife, Jessica's mother, before turning his gun on himself. Jessica suffers from a series of violent dreams. Her shrink is Dr. Melvin Frank (David Strathairn); during sessions she often slams her unlit cigarette against a table. Jessica is a tad resistant to revealing too much information to Dr. Frank.
With Jessica's promotion, she is partnered with Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia). Jessica's job mentor is the man who raised her after her father's death, John Mills (Samuel L. Jackson). Mills is of high rank in the SFPD. Jessica's pastimes include drinking copious amounts of cabaret sauvignon and engaging in a series of one-night stands. She picks up good-looking but strange men in bars and has rough sex with them (But she does not return to the same guy twice.). Before long, each man is found dead; the one identifying fact with each is the cigarette burn on the back of a hand. The crime scenes reveal neither weapons nor signs of struggle. Obviously, suspicions are raised against Jessica.
Is Jessica committing murders and then blacking out? She certainly has no memory of them. As Jessica tries to uncover the truth, the realization strikes her that perhaps she is indeed the serial killer. Then again you might believe that anyone who has sexual relations with Jessica gets dispatched. Hmm, wonder who could be doing that? Lt. Tong (Russell Wong) wants to pull her off the case, but Mills asks if he has any evidence against her. "No, of course not," Tong replies. Mills' response is that using bad judgment is not the same as committing a crime, so Jessica stays on the assignment. Later a lab test of Jessica's blood reveals that someone is drugging her sauvignon with Rohypnol ("roofies"), a tranquilizer far more potent than Valium. But how is this action possible? Why doesn't Jessica catch on? No spoilers are provided here, but the denouement leaves a plot hole among others.
Although on location shooting is usually a positive, the lack of story development plus plot holes make this feature no better than formulaic. The viewer does not really see any detective, including Ms. Shepard, wracking his/her brain in attempting to figure out the profile or motives (modus operandi) of the killer. Others may be turned off by the inconsistent length of Ms. Judd's cropped hair style. Now as she is an attractive woman and is no skank, one may also have a difficult time believing her dangerous liaisons. The self-described "Sicilian Hillbilly" (at birth her last name was Ciminella) has done better work, like "Ruby in Paradise" (1993), a superior character study.
With Jessica's promotion, she is partnered with Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia). Jessica's job mentor is the man who raised her after her father's death, John Mills (Samuel L. Jackson). Mills is of high rank in the SFPD. Jessica's pastimes include drinking copious amounts of cabaret sauvignon and engaging in a series of one-night stands. She picks up good-looking but strange men in bars and has rough sex with them (But she does not return to the same guy twice.). Before long, each man is found dead; the one identifying fact with each is the cigarette burn on the back of a hand. The crime scenes reveal neither weapons nor signs of struggle. Obviously, suspicions are raised against Jessica.
Is Jessica committing murders and then blacking out? She certainly has no memory of them. As Jessica tries to uncover the truth, the realization strikes her that perhaps she is indeed the serial killer. Then again you might believe that anyone who has sexual relations with Jessica gets dispatched. Hmm, wonder who could be doing that? Lt. Tong (Russell Wong) wants to pull her off the case, but Mills asks if he has any evidence against her. "No, of course not," Tong replies. Mills' response is that using bad judgment is not the same as committing a crime, so Jessica stays on the assignment. Later a lab test of Jessica's blood reveals that someone is drugging her sauvignon with Rohypnol ("roofies"), a tranquilizer far more potent than Valium. But how is this action possible? Why doesn't Jessica catch on? No spoilers are provided here, but the denouement leaves a plot hole among others.
Although on location shooting is usually a positive, the lack of story development plus plot holes make this feature no better than formulaic. The viewer does not really see any detective, including Ms. Shepard, wracking his/her brain in attempting to figure out the profile or motives (modus operandi) of the killer. Others may be turned off by the inconsistent length of Ms. Judd's cropped hair style. Now as she is an attractive woman and is no skank, one may also have a difficult time believing her dangerous liaisons. The self-described "Sicilian Hillbilly" (at birth her last name was Ciminella) has done better work, like "Ruby in Paradise" (1993), a superior character study.