Mind Games (2001)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Just finished watching this made for television film.What a wonderfully put together contribution to the English crime / detective television genre. Fiona Shaw's ex - nun profiler is so refreshingly different and beautifully realised I am disappointed that there does not appear to be any more films utilising the same character. If you 'enjoy' (inverted commas because still not convinced that this is the correct word to describe precisely why quite a few of us out there watch these programmes - Grimms Fairy Tales for Adults maybe??) the English style of Police Investigation programme, along the same lines as 'Prime Suspect' then do give this a go because you won't be disappointed. Also, how brilliant to watch a main character (Fiona Shaw's Frances O'Neil), a published profiler, carry out her investigations with such quiet humility. Makes a change from the ranting, 'I know I'm right!' egotism and unchecked police brutality of Boyd from 'Waking the Dead' and the UK's version of 'Touching Evil' where Robson Green's lead character exerts similar ego and scene stealing antics. Not an insult to these two programmes, just useful examples. The 8/10 is within the context of the post Prime Suspect English police drama - high praise indeed!

A pretty good Lynda La Plante creation, even if there were other writers involved. It's great because the character of Frances O'Neil is different from the usual in that (as has already been said) she's an Irish Ex-nun who because of her emotions she is nick named 'The Celtic Tiger' as well as been put down with jibes from police officers about 'Nun On The Run' and 'The Flying Nun' etc With having a Irish female lead who works for the police, this series has been matched to the early series of 'Silent Witness' (with Amanda Burton as Sam Ryan), this is different in that she's in forensics in 'Silent Witness' but is a profiler in 'Mind Games' I suppose you could also match it with 'The Bill', not character wise but in the amount of on location work shot on video around London. As I said it pretty good but I began to suspect the identity of the killer about half way through. It's still outstanding character wise and with emotions rather then some two dimensional cardboard cut out characters

I presume that this was written for Fiona Shaw. It is hard to imagine anyone else who could bring such certainty and conviction to the character of a Catholic nun, turned criminal profiler, whose faith informs her understanding of psychology to help her understand what we worry about calling "evil". Like Lynda LaPlante's other great creation, Jane Tennyson, Frances is initially mocked, ridiculed and doubted by her co-workers, but her collaboration with another female (played in this case by the magnificent Sara Kestelman) provides the missing link to a terrible serial killer's identity. Great performances all round, with Shaw so good that one wonders why she isn't on screen in lead roles more: it's an intelligent, gripping and fresh take on the analysis and psychology of killing and killers. Great stuff.

Lynda La Plante's credentials in crime stories featuring strong female characters would be hard to improve on. Following her seminal "Prime Suspect", "Mind Games" is an intelligent and multi-faceted perspective on the role of the mind and the brain in investigation and in life. The central character (played by Fiona Shaw, without question one of the greatest actresses in the world) uses not just her professional psychological profiling qualifications to inform her work, but also draws on her own faith (the character was previously a Roman Catholic nun) to help her in understanding what the mind can do and what it cannot overcome. It is a magnificent film: exciting, original and quiet, with a uniformly excellent cast who bring a real freshness to the genre.