Actually, the movie is 108 minutes long, but who's counting? In this whodunit - or rather, who will do it - with a modern twist, Dr. Gramm (Al Pacino), a forensic psychiatrist, is faced with death threats when a serial killer he testified against is put on death row. The suspects? The serial killer (Neal McDonough), the romantically rejected teaching assistant (Alicia Witt), the disgruntled dean (Deborah Kara Unger), the emotional assault victim (Leelee Sobieski), the one-night stand (Leah Cairns), the irresponsible secretary (Amy Brenneman) and the nosy student (Christopher Redman). Each loom over Gramm's head as he is given 88 minutes to live.
This list of suspects is about as unnecessarily busy as the film itself, and the effort for intense action throughout the film is pointlessly exhausting. Barely a minute goes by without a cell phone ringing with yet another predictable plot twist, a car exploding, a building being set on fire or someone getting unpleasantly mutilated.
The film opens with the cliché initial crime scene of the notorious serial killer. However, cliché"" soon turns to over-the-top when the victims of the crime are introduced as identical twin sisters named Joanie and Janie. If that didn't turn anyone off, Al Pacino's character will, getting sentimental about his ""baby sister"" during the same blurry flashback - played repetitively throughout the movie - of a little girl yelling ""Daddy, daddy! Look! I'm flying a kite!""
The film's inconsistencies are equally distracting. Dr. Gramm breaks his cell phone (a feeble attempt at foreshadowing), asks an enamored teaching assistant to borrow hers and suddenly all the girl's incoming calls are for Gramm without explanation. Then, when the culprit is revealed, his/her all-too familiar ""here's what I did and why"" story doesn't reveal how such close surveillance is kept on the professor to continue the creepy ""[insert number here] minutes left until you die"" messages. In addition, the phone calls alerting Dr. Gramm are supposedly 12 minutes apart after only four actual minutes.
All fluff aside, the movie has a few redeeming qualities. The ending is not entirely predictable, as each and every suspect substantially incriminates him/herself at some point. Just when you think you've figured it out, every third plot twist comes as a surprise. Plus, every time Pacino gets emotional, he gives whatever lady he's standing next to a ""Godfather""-esque kiss, reminding the audience that he did indeed used to star in quality films.
