This is a taut serial killer vs. the FBI thriller: suspenseful, admirably visual, with an ending that's so over the top that all the positive elements get washed away in the desert wind. Call it, payoff zero.

It's the work of E. Elias Merhige, a director who is all technique but emotion-challenged. The ones he depicts well are obsession, fixation, sadistic thrill, horror. Give him a little person to person relationship and he flees, like his central character (Aaron Eckhart) who takes off right after he tells his partner (Carrie-Anne Moss) he loves her. Just can't face the smoochy stuff however much needed for balance it may be.

Ben Kingsley turns in another solid weirdo whose efforts on society's behalf aren't appreciated.

It's a must see for one of the most stunning photographic designs in a movie this year and a study in getting sidetracked by an over-concentration on that aspect of a motion picture.

                                      ~~  Jules Brenner