Let's be realistic.

Dreadfully Boring

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Stick to the facts, and you'll be half-way there. Unlike this film. It appears as if the filmmakers thought they have too little at their hands, and felt compelled to 'spice' things up by adding the story of an investigator (as so often, female, young, good-looking, yawn) who struggles with mental illness; the murders weren't solved, the essence of them appear to fit on a short Wikipedia-page, so what else can we do...? Just that it's still enough to make an interesting, haunting film-effort, the unsolved murders of three girls. Instead their legacy is insulted with this cliché-laden flick. It comes to no surprise that it'll opt for inventing a perpetrator in the end. Until then it's poor in sequence and pace, it's poor in acting, and it's poor even in using the clichés. Try and find a documentary about the case, instead.

I thought this movie was OK until we got to the part where we see Medic #2. I don't know about anyone else, but he should have been Medic #1. NO where in his performance was there a reason for him not to be Medic #1. Who chooses who is Medic #1 and Medic #2 ? I know this movie would have rated higher with me if Medic #2 was indeed Medic #1. Lets refilm and have more scenes with Medic #2. Maybe of him giving cpr to a drowning victim that he rescued from the genesee river. Or how about him driving an ambulance down genesee st. full of a group of gang bangers who just got ambushed by the rochester police. I don't know about you, but there just needs to be more Medic #2 in this flick.

About the only thing I can think of in the movie's favor is the occasional local color... pretty obvious it was shot on location in NY.Otherwise, this is one of those movies you watch and by the end are mad at, simply because you have invested yourself in a story and characters that are (spoiler!) not even 'real'. Yup, its one of those 'it was all in her mind' endings where pivotal elements are suddenly revealed to be hallucinations, dreams, coincidence, etc. and it is clear that the director, writers, producers are happy to provide a giant insult to the audience instead of providing a coherent and satisfying closing act. Pretty pathetic, especially in a film that bills itself as 'Based on a true story'. In other words, they cheat their way out of creating a complete film. Pretty much a tease all the way through, then...

The Alphabet Killer is a promising tale that's ultimately undone by a bad casting decision and an ending that is pointless and unsatisfying.Based on a true story from the early 1970s where three young girls whose first and last names started with the same letter were murdered and their bodies dumped in New York towns with names which also started with the same letter, this film dispenses with the original era and is set in the present day. That decision starts the movie off on the wrong foot as there are aspects of the true tale that don't neatly fit into the 21st century. It's like making a film about Jack the Ripper but setting it in 1950s London.When the first dead girl turns up, Rochester, New York police lieutenant Megan Paige (Eliza Dushku) is assigned to the case. As the months pass and no progress is made in finding the killer, Megan grows increasingly obsessed and starts seeing and hearing the dead girl crying out for help. She finally tries to kill herself to end the torment.The story then jumps forward a couple of years. Megan has been diagnosed with adult onset schizophrenia. She's trying to manage it with drugs and group therapy sessions where she meets Richard Ledge (Timothy Hutton), a wheelchair bound former math teacher who suffers from his own mental disorder. Megan is no longer a detective but still has a job in the police records department, thanks to her old partner and ex-fiancée Kenneth Shine (Care Elwes), who's become a police captain. When another dead girl turns up, Megan pleads to be allowed to help with the investigation and Ken reluctantly agrees. He assigns Megan to tag along with officer Steven Harper (Tom Malloy) as he investigates the case, with strict rules about her only functioning as a consultant. As Megan and Harper try to track down suspects, they have to overcome the interference of police captain Nathan Norcross (Michael Ironside) from a neighboring jurisdiction who wants the capture of the Alphabet Killer for his own force. Megan also has to deal with her own schizophrenia returning in full force.There's really not much of a mystery at work in The Alphabet Killer. A few suspects are quickly introduced and just as quickly discarded and there aren't any investigative twists and turns to the story. This movie is all about the inner turmoil of Megan Paige and Eliza Dushku isn't up to the task. She's a beautiful woman and does have some acting skill, but she possesses what you could call a "limited instrument". Dushku is like a female Mark Wahlberg. If you put her in a role that's suited to her, she can be quite effective. When you ask her to do things beyond her comfort zone, she noticeably flounders. Here, Dushku is playing a complex character who dominates the entire narrative and there are absolutely no levels to her performance, no depth of subtlety to her acting, which wouldn't be so bad if the film were trashy and melodramatic or if there was another major character to carry the storytelling load. But Megan Paige is the heart and soul of this attempt at dark and serious drama and Dushku cannot pull it off. She doesn't need to be ashamed or embarrassed by her work, but she's like a career AAA minor leaguer who doesn't have the game to make it in the Major Leagues.The ending of this film is also one of those where even if you did like the movie, it will leave you disappointed and unsatisfied. Nothing is resolved and you're left wondering why you bothered to watch The Alphabet Killer in the first place. Dushku is one of the producers of this movie and, following the rule of Producer Self-Nudity, she does show off her upper front. Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans might enjoy those scant few seconds. The film is also reasonably well written and the rest of the cast are fine, though again, none of them are given anything interesting or significant to do.It's unfair to blame one person for the failure of a motion picture, yet there's nothing else to do in this case. If an exceptional actress had been cast in the main role, The Alphabet Killer might have turned out to be something worth watching. One wasn't, so it's not.