Jane Doe (2001)

That was an excellent one.

An absolute waste of money

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

What happened with this movie? It starts pretty good (minding is a B-series tv production). Very a-la 24, Jack Bauerish. Then when you get to the half, even if you were trying to still believe its contrivances, the storyline becomes so incredibly stupid and fragmented you start thinking you must have dozed off at some point and missed something.**SPOILERS AHEAD**They plan a scam, goes fine, and then suddenly the bad guy henchman jumps at them out of nowhere. We're never told how he got there (is there a scene missing? talk about deus es machina!). Well from there on, cheap blackmail, contrived plot, ridiculous high-tec computer company reliying on 3 1/2 inch disks,the clichés are a dozen a minute and more plot holes than anything you've seen recently on the small screen.

This is a top-notch thriller that keeps you going from the beginning to the end. The music and camera angles are all top notch. Teri Hatcher gives an excellent performance. I first rented the DVD because I never heard of it. The next day I bought it and watched it again.

I'm watching it now and I'm losing interest as it goes on. The writing is nothing but clichés and one liners and the plot is implausible. I like both Teri Hatcher and Rob Lowe but their talents are wasted in this mess of a movie. I'd rather watch paint dry.

A mulligan stew, inherently of low expectations: throbbing music; lots and lots of different locations, sometimes interesting but fleeting; abundant gun play; a plethora of characters (more than indicated by IMDB); wild camera angles, till they tire of them; deceit and treachery all over, with vaporizing loyalties; super high-tech weapons; and something about intelligence agencies, computers, encrypted passwords, and critical databases doctored by the good (???) guys for sale by the bad guys to unseen other bad guys of murky pedigree. At the end, the only true good guys stand alone.Teri Hatcher has the lion's share of acting duty. Sorry girls, there's not as much of Rob Lowe as you'd expect from his star status: just enough to preserve his star billing but not enough to break the budget or really exercise his talent.Fine production values and good acting. BUT: why, oh why, can't they spend less on frills and more of the budget on a decent, respectable script; shouldn't that ALWAYS be the first priority?By the way, we never learn how Jane Doe (Teri Hatcher) came by her legal name, nor what that has to do with anything.