The Bone Collector

I happened to catch the movie The Bone Collector on Encore the other day, so I figure it is a good place to start. This movie is not new, 1999, but it was new to me and frankly I don't even remember it coming out. That being said, there is probably no reason to give some in-depth review of a decade old movie. But I don't think I would get much enjoyment out of this blogging business if I just had an entry that said..."I watched The Bone Collector. It is from 1999."

First of all, this was a decent premise. I like Denzel and he is in his usual cop role in this movie. But to skip directly to the end...why did they have to use the obscure, underdeveloped character as the killer? We see Dr. Lehman in an early scene of this movie and he promised to assist in the suicide of his good friend Lincoln Rhyme (Denzel) who has been paralyzed in a police work accident. Then, until the last scene, Dr. Lehman is gone.

In the last scene Dr. Lehman comes to kill Lincoln Rhyme and rambles on about how he used to be a detective and then Lincoln testified against him for placing some evidence and staging a crime scene. Lincoln tells the good Doctor that he doesn't remember him but that he was sure he was correct in his testimony. Then Dr. Lehman says that due to the testimony of Lincoln he went to prison where he received a daily dose of "the friendly" from other inmates for several years.

OK, so we have a guy who was a detective (it takes time to raise through the police ranks to detective, doesn't it?) then goes to prison for a few years, then becomes a doctor, then becomes a surgeon, then as a surgeon he somehow meets Lincoln, becomes his friend, waits until he has been paralyzed, stages 4 exceedingly elaborate murders with plenty of clues so that Lincoln can try to solve the case, then tries and fails to murder Lincoln despite the fact that Lincoln had agreed to let him assist in his suicide.

Do you see where I am going with this? This guy looked like he was about 40 years old, you do the math.

Is the new American Dream to someday get out of prison, go to medical school, become a surgeon, and then commit murders with easily decipherable clues so that you can get back at a guy who helped send you to prison but along the way became paralyzed, wants you to assist in his suicide, and is under the constant care of Queen Latifah? Are these the dreams prison guards were filling our prisoners heads with in the early 90's?

And what was the deal with Captain Cheney? I mean, the whole movie they set this guy up to be the killer. He was trying to stop the investigation of the murders at every turn. But in the end he just gets killed by Dr. Lehman and he never was the murderer? Why was he so angry? Why was he trying to stop the investigation?

Finally, when Amelia Donaghy got called to the scene of the first victim, why was she alone? I love cop movies but why is she going into a dark, questionable subway tunnel (complete with burned out cars) to investigate a possible dead body without any backup or a partner? She looked scared out of her mind (good acting Angelina)! If I was a hot chick cop, walking into a dark subway tunnel with erie music playing in the background...I would call for backup! By the way, did anyone question the kid at the scene as to what he saw? He must have seen something.

So, to sum it all up, The Bone Collector is from 1999.

Warren