Verdict
Summary
A borderline erotic thriller with a really great performance by Judd in both a sexual and a physically demanding role that sees her character cycling through a bunch of bedmates and then through an alcoholic stupor each night (which she portrays very convincingly), Twisted is an otherwise pretty standard studio-produced, big budget serial killer thriller with lots of suspects, close-call thrill-a-minute moments, and above-average direction by edgy filmmaker Philip Kaufman.
Plot:
A female detective finds herself the prime suspect of some serial murders.
Review:
Alcoholic cop Jessica Shepard (Ashley Judd in the prime of her career) is promoted after she single-handedly captures a serial killer while using excessive force. The police commissioner (Samuel L. Jackson) lauds her while also reprimanding her, and it’s no surprise that he raised her since childhood after her father went on a killing spree, killing her mother and then himself when she was very young. Her new partner is Mike (Andy Garcia) whom is obviously attracted to her, but her alcoholism and promiscuity with random guys she picks up in bars almost every night tend to end in her blacking out, which Mike begins to understand is a problem for her … especially when mutilated and murdered men – her former one-night stands – begin turning up dead around the San Francisco Bay area, which is their beat. Having no memory of committing the murders, but put on the spot by her department, Jessica becomes the prime suspect and if she’s not the killer, then the killer is very close to her and intends to either challenge her to work her way to the truth, or to make her the victim of a very twisted plot that will throw her memories and her perception through the ringer.
A borderline erotic thriller with a really great performance by Judd in both a sexual and a physically demanding role that sees her character cycling through a bunch of bedmates and then through an alcoholic stupor each night (which she portrays very convincingly), Twisted is an otherwise pretty standard studio-produced, big budget serial killer thriller with lots of suspects, close-call thrill-a-minute moments, and above-average direction by edgy filmmaker Philip Kaufman, who in his heyday made supercharged erotic dramas like The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Quills. Screenwriter Sarah Thorp delivered a decidedly feminist spin on a genre that usually has a masculine side to it, and the film works mainly because of how she writes Judd’s character and how the men react to her throughout the entire film. This might be the best of Judd’s big budget vehicles, of which Double Jeopardy and Kiss the Girls are also included. Mark Isham did the score.
Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray edition of Twisted comes in a brand new HD master from the original camera negative, looking pretty great in all regards, and the disc comes with an audio commentary by Kaufman, three featurettes, deleted scenes, and the trailer.
