Brilliant and touching

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Other reviewers have described the content of this film, so I won't repeat. Instead, I'll hold forth on a pet peeve about movies. Which is - the liberties taken with bird content in movies. To wit: The film is named "Caracara", but the bird used in the film is a Harris's Hawk. There are nine species of Caracara in the world. They're all found in Central and South America. One of the nine occurs far enough north to be found in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Did they think that none of the 70 million birdwatchers in the US (according to the "National Survey on Recreation and the Environment" conducted periodically by the US Forest Service, most recently released in 2002) would notice?One of the other comments on this film included: "Hence the title, referring to the species of Peregrine falcon she keeps as a pet". First, a Peregrine Falcon is a species itself; there are not species thereof. Second, although the Caracaras are members of the Falcon family, the bird used in this film is not a Falcon of any kind - Caracara, Peregrine or otherwise.This is a low budget film, but this is not an expensive item to research. I suppose they liked the name "Caracara", which is rather more exotic than "Harris's Hawk". So, when it turned out that no Caracara could be found to appear in the film, they simply substituted something else, and kept the cool name. And they figured it didn't matter if they got it "right", because the audience wouldn't notice. Considering the comment quoted above, perhaps they are right. But, considering the kind of obsessive attention to detail found in many other aspects of filmmaking, it is baffling why so many films consistently goof up bird-related content. (The sound people are especially culpable in this regard.)

The first half of Caracara is really quite terrific, slowly building suspense and carefully establishing character before a thrilling mid-point climax in which Henstridge thwarts the assassin's master plan. What follows is pretty generic stuff: the assassin goes off to silence all witnesses and our game leading lady races against time to catch him.What absolutely distinguishes this fun rental is Natasha Henstridge. She's not only gorgeous and totally winning but an increasingly capable actress. If only she'd be more discerning when it comes to picking roles. The Whole Nine Yards and Ghosts of Mars are understandable choices as they offered her some exposure, but parts in Second Skin and A Better Way to Die are disastrous.Henstridge is still quite young and has a good decade of leading roles ahead. Hopefully the films will improve -- she deserves better.

After enjoying Schaech in "welcome to Woop Woop" I have been looking for his other work. Last night I saw "Caracara", which is the first time I saw him as the "bad guy". He gave a great performance - I think he is one of the up and coming great actors of this time (2001). I will look forward to seeing him in future movies. The other actors/actresses gave solid performances, and I was on the edge of my seat until the end of the film. It isn't the best movie I ever saw, but all in all, a good way to spend a couple of hours. There is a LOT of killing in this movie, though - I wouldn't recommend this for younger audiences.

Natasha Henstridge has never been better. She can really act and looks great. Great story full of surprises. Fun seeing Lauren Hutton again. She was terrific. Very well directed by Graeme Clifford (Frances). Highly recommended.