Jennifer Eight

Focusing on the dubious obsession of Garcia, a burnt-out Los Angeles cop, with an alleged serial killer - whose latest victim he dubs 'Jennifer 8' - English writer/director Bruce Robinson's first Hollywood feature fails to reconcile the conflicting demands of psychological character study and generic suspense thriller. Garcia's transfer to the small town of Eureka, California, ruffles a few feathers, especially when he starts exhuming corpses and digging into long-dead cases. The key witness, Thurman, is a young blind woman whose growing affection for Garcia and fragments of knowledge about the killer put her at risk. Garcia too is stumbling in the dark, so much so that FBI 'observer' Malkovich points the finger at him. The opening scene on a rain-drenched rubbish tip hints at great things, but despite strong writing and an exceptional cast, the plotting is suspect and the murderer's identity is obvious from very early on.