THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511070465
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
``COPYCAT'' IS a slick production that is much better than it has any right to be. Spurred by two fine performances from Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter, it rises above its serial killer milieu most of the way - right up to a predictable last-minute turnaround that almost sinks the movie.
Weaver plays a criminal psychologist who is an expert on the behavior of serial killers. She is traumatized when one of her subjects strings her up in a public bathroom and threatens to slit her throat. She retreats to her nifty San Francisco apartment and never ventures forth.
Enter Hunter, as a rather unlikely cop assigned to track down the latest serial killer. The two women work together.
It doesn't take long before Weaver spots a trend - the new serial killer is imitating the styles of former murderers such as the Boston Strangler, the Hillside Strangler, Son of Sam and even the granddady of them all, Jack the Ripper.
Weaver is so harried and troubled that she could get an Oscar nomination out of this if they have the usual trouble rounding up five. (She was robbed last year when she wasn't nominated for ``Death and the Maiden.'') Hunter isn't nearly so convincing, but she manages to keep her accent in check.
Harry Connick Jr. is effective as one of the film's two serial killers. But the role does, yet again, represent geographical prejudice; according to Hollywood, a major percentage of serial killers have Southern accents.
There is some alarm in the public's fascination with films involving gore and serial killers. The concern was prompted primarily because of the popularity of ``Seven,'' a well-done melodrama but one that some soothsayers originally thought might be too harsh to become a mass hit. Not so. ``Seven'' is one of the major hits of this year.
Ironically, ``Copycat'' has opened to less than outstanding business, prompting the usual claim that the public won't buy this plot with two women rather than two men.
In any case, ``Copycat'' is slick film making of its type. The rather predictable final scene hurts, but, then, film makers rarely know how to end these films. Hunter and Weaver work hard and well. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Copycat''
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney, William
McNamara, Harry Conick Jr.
Director: Jon Amiel
Screenplay: Ann Biderman and David Madsen
MPAA rating: R (violence and language, graphic murders and
aftermath)
Mal's rating: Three stars
Locations: Chesapeake Square, Greenbrier in Chesapeake; Janaf,
Main Gate in Norfolk; Kemps River, Lynnhaven 8, Pembroke,
Surf-N-Sand in Virginia Beach
by CNB