Twisted: Movie & DVD Review (2004)

(Originally published 2004)

The new Philip Kaufman movie, “Twisted,” is another one of those glossy, eye-popping crime thrillers starring Ashley Judd as a strung-out woman living a life of peril.

Like its predecessors --“Kiss the Girls,” “Double Jeopardy,” “High Crimes” and “Along Came a Spider”—the movie features a premise that’s such a stretch, it nearly snaps the celluloid on which it’s filmed.

Unfortunately, unlike those other Judd jaunts, this one is so lazily conceived, it never becomes the guilty pleasure it should have been. Without a trace of suspense to sustain it or a thread of logic to needle it through, the movie is so joylessly dull, it can’t save itself from collapsing onscreen.

This time out, in what might be considered a minor break from form, Judd plays a character who isn’t just in danger, but who might, in fact, be the danger. She’s Jessica Shepard, a feisty policewoman recently turned homicide detective who has, shall we say, her share of problems.

Booze is one of them. Jess loves the drink, particular wine, which she guzzles until her eyes roll back in her head, the room spins and she falls flat on the floor.

Or on top of a man. You see, Jess’ other pastime is picking up smoky strangers in sleazy San Francisco bars and taking them home for rounds of aggressive sex, which she enjoys to the point of passing out. Lately, when she comes to the next morning, she does so with the cold news that the previous evening’s trick has wound up dead, with a cigarette burn on the back of his hand and his face beaten to a bloody pulp.

Is she the murderer? Jess doesn’t know—she was too stoned to remember. Still, the movie strains to mount a mystery around that very question, with Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Garcia and David Strathairn rounding out the dim corners.

As directed by Kaufman from a script by Sarah Thorp, “Twisted” is a train wreck, with Ashley Judd stuck in the caboose.

Initially, the scenes in which Judd transforms her cute, tart image into that of an alcohol-soaked tramp are grotesquely fun, with Kaufman nearly creating a camp erotic thriller of note. But as the movie unfolds and the script becomes increasingly implausible, that note turns out to be D flat.

For instance, in spite of standing tall as the only suspect in each of the murders, Jess is inexplicably allowed to stay on the case, in spite of the rather sizable conflict of interest that creates. Kaufman and Thorp try to breeze over that beauty, having one character claim that Jess would lose her career if she weren’t allowed to stay on the case, and in the process, they somehow believe audiences will buy it.

They won’t.

Grade: D-