She saw the killer's face, but it keeps changing...Faces in the Crowd (2011) is a psychological thriller movie about a woman who suffers from prosopagnosia, or in layman term, face-blindness, after surviving a psycho serial killer's attack.
Synopsis: A young primary school teacher, Anna Marchant (Milla Jovovich) witnesses a brutal murder by a serial killer known as "Tearjerk Jack". She falls off a bridge in the attempt to flee and wakes up being diagnosed with prosopagnosia or face-blindness, a medical condition whereby her ability to recognize faces is permanently impaired.
In the process of coping with the ordeal and trying to track down the murderer, she loses her boyfriend Bryce (Michael Shanks) and becomes attached to the detective in charge of the case, Detective Kerrest (Julian McMahon). The serial killer still runs free and worse, he's aware of her condition and is now closing in to finish the job.
Everyone knows Milla Jovovich from Resident Evil. She's a fearless action heroine in the Resident Evil movies where she kicks asses without battling her eyelashes in combat scenes. But in this movie, she plays a totally different role - an emotionally distraught survivor of a close encounter with a psycho murderer and at the same time, a distressed patient trying to cope with the ordeal of her medical condition. The stark difference of how she manages to perform convincingly and naturally well even though she's given contrasting roles is worthy of mention and applause.
Apart from Milla Jovovich's solid performance, the main strength of the movie lies in its interesting premise of face-blindness. There are so many movies out there about serial killers, victims, and similar plots but this movie stands out because it deals with a rare medical condition, which most of us don't even know it exists.
It's not easy to maintain its high-strung hype and the movie soon loses steam when the serial killer's identity is exposed. The scenes after that are rather predictable, but I love its melancholic and bittersweet ending.
Having said so, if you'd like to spend a quiet evening by yourself, I'd recommend this movie for your viewing pleasure.
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