Twisted

Despite even performances from a strong cast, Twisted is a transparent thriller that spoils its climax by giving its ending away in the first 20 minutes of the film. Ashley Judd plays Inspector Jessica Shepherd, a newly-promoted homicide officer in the San Francisco police force who discovers an odd pattern in a slew of beaten male corpses that start turning up: she's fucked all of them. Shepard seems like she could be a prime suspect, as sessions with a psychiatrist reveal that she has suppressed rage about the murder/suicide committed by her father (himself a police officer) that also claimed her mother. We also learn that that Shepard was mentored by her father's former partner and current police commissioner John Mills (Samuel L. Jackson) and that the pretty young cop is prone to casual sex with strangers and drinking until she blacks out. Each morning brings another unsolved homicide whose victims Shepard has known intimately and she begins to question herself and those around her. Her new partner, Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia), and the forensics lab specialist (Camryn Manheim) act suspiciously for no apparent reason, though it doesn't matter because Shepard has already drawn a link between her parents' deaths and this new crop of murders that points a suspecting finger at one man. The film's conclusion can be seen coming a mile away and, as much as Philip Kaufman insists otherwise in his director's commentary and in this mostly vapid behind-the-scenes featurettes, this is simply not the taut, exciting film it could have been. Plus: director's commentary, three featurettes, extended/deleted scenes. (Paramount)