Crossing a bridge while walking home late one night, Anna Marchant (Milla Jovovich) interrupts serial killer Tearjerk Jack (David Atrakchi) while he is weeping over the body of his latest victim. Fighting off the psycho, Anna falls over the edge of the bridge, hitting her head on the way down, and is rescued from the river by a friendly hobo. When she awakes in hospital, she discovers that she is suffering from prosopagnosia, a condition that leaves her unable to recognise faces; this not only causes problems between Anna and her boyfriend Bryce (Michael Shanks), but makes it impossible for her to identify the killer, even when he is stalking her.Scrutinise the plot for Faces in the Crowd too closely and there are going to be questions that will spoil the experience; let it all wash over you and you'll have a much better time. Jovovich puts in a credible performance as the troubled Anna and director Julien Magnat handles the material admirably given the flakiness of the plot. What works best is the clever use of different actors for the same character, and several scenes in which the occupants of a room all look remarkably similar; they're ingenious techniques that prove effectively unsettling.Its easy to see why some might find the premise a little silly—the mere idea of prosopagnosia is difficult idea to wrap one's head around—but to be fair, Face in the Crowd is no more unbelievable than many a giallo, and I'm generally very forgiving towards them when it comes to logic. 6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

This is possibly the first film that has helped me understand the definition of "so bad it's good". Despite so many laughable moments, I was compelled to keep watching, if only to ensure I was right about how bad the film was.I've loved Milla Jovovich since The Fifth Element (1997), she's a really good actress but I'm starting to think she should stick to character acting. When portraying 'real' people, there's something really hollow about it. It's too obvious that she's acting so I never really care about her characters.The main issue with this film is the script. It was fine for the first ten minutes or so but then the writer obviously got bored and finished the script in about thirty minutes. The dialogue is beyond unrealistic. An example: Anna (Jovovich) meets with a specialist in prosopagnosia (face blindness) whose first response is to literally laugh in Anna's face and tell her she's screwed. Then, in a weird ending to that under-rehearsed scene, this 'specialist' spouts some random whimsical nonsense at Anna's back while the door shuts. Imagine if that were your meeting after seeking help from a medical professional! Then there's Anna's two-dimensional boyfriend, Bryce (Michael Shanks), whose sole purpose of existence is to flip a switch from superficial, horrible human being to suddenly having a conscience and remorse for his actions. His response when he finds out Anna doesn't recognise him after all is unbelievable. How would Anna not have known what a douche he was before now? His complete 180 is even more ridiculous. There is never any explanation for his behaviour and he only pops up when the script requires it to keep things moving.There are many more things wrong with this script but there's no point in dwelling so I'll move on to the predictability of the plot. I knew who the bad guy was the minute he entered the scene (we know it's a man from the beginning, that's not a spoiler). I then had this suspicion confirmed during a scene that was supposed to direct us to someone else. Don't waste time wondering if that's a spoiler. It's not. It is impossible to write any spoilers for this film. Some might say that we were supposed to know who he was whilst Anna didn't. This is not true because if that were the intention, there would have been no need for attempts at redirecting our suspicions. The mystery element was simply badly written.The directing was also terrible. Anna's character would overreact to the simplest things like when she woke up in hospital and started running around like a mad woman because she didn't recognise anyone. Most people would just tell the doctor what was wrong and assume that they had a brain injury of some sort. Why was she screaming and running into the halls? I understand it makes for a more dramatic and allegedly interesting scene but it was too much. The actors were overdoing the whispering in too many scenes so I lost a lot of the dialogue. That should have been picked up on and at the end of the showdown when the rain machine was switched on, it literally looked like a guy was standing off camera with a shower head; it was that pathetic.I don't know what the budget for this film was but whoever funded it could surely have been given a variety of job titles? Listing 14 executive producers makes you wonder how none of them picked up on the many problems with the script.And yet, despite all of this, I kept watching. Perhaps because of the interesting subject matter? Because Jovovich is charismatic? Because I'm a fan of Julian McMahon as well? Because I needed to make absolutely certain that there wasn't some genius plot twist at the end? I'm not entirely sure, but as I didn't turn it off, I've given this a 5. I can't go any higher despite some general 'enjoyment' of the film because clearly no effort went into the storytelling and I wouldn't want to mislead anyone.Worth a watch if you have time to waste.

I watched this movie specifically because I have prosopagnosia, although in a milder form than the main character; I can recognize my face in a mirror.The way face blindness is portrayed is very clever, in that every time she loses sight of someone, a new actor takes over the role. That is, to some extent, how I experience faces (but I am less likely to get confused immediately; it's more when I see people the next day they look different).If you were to remove the portentous music and Milla's disturbed reaction shots, it would have taken me a while to figure out anything was out of the ordinary. I would have eventually, because some of the changes are pretty extreme (at one point her boyfriend suddenly develops then loses heavy five o'clock shadow during sex), but a lot of times I would not have realized they'd changed actors if the movie hadn't telegraphed it. I assume if you're good with faces that you would see what was happening even without Milla's reaction shots. Unfortunately, that's pretty much the only thing the movie gets right. It's very slow moving. Sometimes it feels like things have been left out or poorly explained. There is also a therapist who comes across as so creepy that no one would go back to her; what's up with that? And in the first session, her comment as Milla leaves seems to come out of nothing in the conversation up until then. The movie is full of such momentsUltimately this is an alternate take on the blind-girl-in-peril concept. If you want to see a good one of those, you'd be much better off watching that great old Audrey Hepburn movie Wait Until Dark. I only made it through about half of this before jumping to the end for the last ten minutes.

"Faces in the Crowd" is a watchable, partly enjoyable thriller/serial killer film, starring a nerdily cute and youthful-looking Milla Jovovich (who's one of my all-time crushes, I've got to admit it). Her character, Anna, gets attacked by a serial killer known as Tearjerk Jack. She survives, yet loses the ability to recognise faces -- so far a nice variant of the classic "amnesia" and "blind witness" themes. I actually had come in contact with people suffering from prosopagnosia, so when this topic emerged in the film, I became intrigued (I hadn't known the film was about, but had chosen it just due to its cast). It was also refreshing to see Ms Jovovich in the role of a vulnerable character. Don't get me wrong: I always enjoyed (and always will enjoy) seeing Milla kick arse.Sadly, some generic and even kitschy plot elements have found their way into the script. (SPOILERS) We've got the woman who walks home (alone and at night, mind you) and of course takes a 90% rape chance short cut at the first opportunity. We've got the lone cop who protects the sole witness by driving her to his picturesque home town. And we see said hunted witness leaving a hideout because her boyfriend sent her a text message.Furthermore, the acting is sometimes a bit on the odd side, yet not as bad as it is stated to be in some posts around here. On the upside, the main character's face blindness allows some interesting aspects and twists. The effect of the changing faces is creepy (achieved by different actors playing the same character) and can keep a viewer off balance.So if you are looking for something in the neighbourhood of "Blink" or "Los Ojos de Julia", or if you like Milla Jovovich, give this one a try.6.5/10 (7/10 including the Milla bonus)