Saw III

Rating

Director

Darren Lynn Bousman

Screenplay

Leigh Whannell, James Wan

Length

113 min.

Starring

Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Donnie Wahlberg, Dina Meyer, Leigh Whannell, Mpho Koaho, Barry Flatman, Lyriq Bent, J Larose, Debra Lynne McCabe, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell

MPAA Rating

R for strong grisly violence and gore, sequences of terror and torture, nudity and language

Review

The third film in the famed Saw series finds itself continuing a path of redemptive destruction that has been twisted by those who are too blind to see their own frailties.

The film explores Amanda’s (Shawnee Smith) role in Jigsaw’s (Tobin Bell) plans while a separate game plays out between a estranged father, Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) searching for his daughter in a trest of Jigsaw’s creation; and a terrified doctor, Lynn (Bahar Soomekh) who must save Jigsaw from dying of brain cancer or watch the shotgun-shell device strapped around her next go off when his heart monitor flatlines.

The story isn’t as complex as the previous two films, but provides plenty of inventiveness in torture devices and several chances for proving that people other than Jigsaw are capable of redeeming themselves.

The performances here are largely negligible. Neither Bell nor Smith give us more than we’ve seen before, Macfadyen and Soomekh are hardly noteworthy and much of the tertiary cast, a group of detectives trying to solve the Jigsaw case (Dina Meyer, Costas Mandylor, Lyriq Bent), is utterly forgettable, barely part of the story despite several scenes in front of the camera.

The original film’s two writers, James Wan and Leigh Whannell (who co-wrote the second film) are back behind the typewriter to craft a suitable story to further their brainchild. That the leaps of logic and stretches of the imagination have begun to show proves that the film does not have the legs it might have had were it actually planned out instead of just plotted after the films were successes. The second film could have provided a nice springboard for a fully fleshed-out story arc spanning any number of films, but instead we’re relying on the writers to come up with ways to get themselves out of the corners they are painting themselves in.

The potential gold mine of this series has always been the chance for people to step outside of their comfort zones, look beyond their human failings and embrace a new life. Before this film, Amanda was one of the few characters that had heeded and lived up to that call. However, her actions in this third film have proven she may not entirely be up to the task, but she still has tests to pass.

My only quandary at this juncture is what happened to Lawrence Gordon from the first film? He obviously understood the situation he was in and managed to escape through Jigsaw’s deadly healing process, but we haven’t seen him since that film. Perhaps he’ll show up in future films and show us what truly can happen when you recognize and apply Jigsaw’s twisted brand of psychiatric treatment.

Saw III is satisfying, but continues the slow decline of the series, which has been losing steam very slowly. It is admirable they’ve been able to keep things going so well for so long and the film is certain to be popular among fans of the series, but how much longer this can go is anyone’s guess and I’m not certain that we really want to know.

Review Written

September 23, 2009