Along Came a Spider

A decent (if entirely unmemorable) followup to Kiss the Girls, Along Came a Spider follows Morgan Freeman’s Alex Cross as he’s drawn into a case involving the missing daughter (Mika Boorem’s Megan) of a United States congressman (Michael Moriarty’s Hank) – with the investigation eventually leading to a sinister figure known as Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott). It’s fairly interesting to note that Along Came a Spider boasts few similarities to the James Patterson novel on which it’s based, and yet the movie does manage to essentially (and effectively) capture the tone of its literary predecessor and, more importantly, the spirit of its virtually iconic central character – with Freeman’s typically superb work anchoring the erratic proceedings from start to finish. (There’s little doubt, as well, that Wincott delivers a better-than-expected performance as the conflicted, vicious Soneji.) Filmmaker Lee Tamahori has infused Along Came a Spider with a handful of impressively engrossing sequences, including a tense stakeout and an exciting chase through Washington, and it’s clear that the movie, in general, boasts an appealingly adult-thriller sensibility that proves difficult to resist. The film’s inability to hold one’s attention on a consistent basis ultimately prevents it from achieving total liftoff, however, with the decidedly uneven atmosphere perpetuated by an overlong running time and the procedural-like bent of the narrative (ie the movie is often just a little to focused on Cross’ investigation) – which, when coupled with a fairly anticlimactic finish, confirms Along Came a Spider‘s place as a distinctly middle-of-the-road adaptation.

**1/2 out of ****