Faces in the Crowd [Blu-Ray]

Apparently, prosopagnosia (or face blindness) is in fact a real condition, wherein victims of brain damage lose the ability to recognize faces even though they can perceive other objects without struggle. It's the impetus behind this straight-to-DVD thriller, wherein vapid schoolteacher Anna Marchant (Milla Jovovich) suffers a serious head injury after witnessing a serial killer raping a dead body in an alleyway. Since she develops face blindness, she's unable to identify the killer, which inevitably leads to him posing as people in her life in order to terrify and manipulate her. She also struggles with her relationship – seeing, and making love with, a different man (facially) every night – similarly finding it hard to teach in a school where all the students wear the same uniform. Why she would jump back into teaching when she has a legitimate disability or why her husband would be so irrationally impatient with her condition are never really explained. In fact, very little in the terribly titled Faces in the Crowd makes any sense or has any sort of depth beyond the obvious. Magnat's approach to Marchant's new disability is to have an endless parade of actors step into each role while Jovovich does her usual exaggerated, wide-eyed shock face. He never exploits the tension or terror of the unknown, treating scenes with her and the killer with the same blasé vision as everything else, similarly boiling down every nascent struggle and anxiety she has to superficial reactions. We never get a sense of how she really feels or any secondary character motivations, seeing as the plot goes through the standard serial killer motions without any legitimate red herrings or complexity. Of course, the "Making of" supplement on the Blu-Ray provides clarity about these many shortcomings. Jovovich excitedly talks about her character and getting the opportunity to play someone dealing with such a struggle with quite a bit of insight, while Julian Magnat talks about things in only the broadest terms. He seems like someone far more interested in being a part of the film industry than someone that actually cares about films. Perhaps he should start a blog instead of wasting our time.