Fallen (1998)

I must have watched this film three or four times now, and each time it takes me the first half hour to recall. It's an intriguing story rooted in Aramaic mythology but applied to 20th century Philadelphia. "Hobbes" (Denzel Washington) is a detective who worked on the case of serial killer "Edgar Reese" that saw him captured and executed. Not long after this supposed closure, however, other - very similar - crimes start to occur and he and his partner "Jonesy" (John Goodman) are perplexed. He keeps hearing a song - the same song the deceased sang as he died, but the people singing it are different. There is something mysterious afoot that can inhabit a body, move effortlessly and invisibly from one to another - and it seems to have "Hobbes" in it's sights. Desperate to shield his family from this evil, he must try to find a way to destroy it before it destroys him. It all takes too long to get going, and Goodman is not particularly well cast, but once we have the gist of the plot then Washington and director Gregory Hoblit turn in quite a well put together story, using the photography well to give us a perspective from our menace whilst effectively conveying the sense of nimble mobility this creature possesses as the resourceful "Hobbes" tries to combat it. Donald Sutherland pops up now and again, to no real purpose, indeed much of the supporting cast sort of blend into the wallpaper of this exercise that really plays to the strengths of an on-form Washington delivering a solid and interesting theme. It's too long, but still worth watching.

I generally have a distaste for movies where Denzel plays the smart cop/government agent/detective because he does it far too often, he seems to be typecast, and it's a waste of pro talent. He's above playing the same sort of role over and over again. But this is one of the exceptions. He does an excellent job, but despite this, it's not Washington you remember. You remember Elias Koteas and he's only in the film for a few short minutes. It's remarkable that in a Denzel Washington movie, someone else steals the most memorable role, and it's even more rare that the role you remember has nearly the least amount of screen time. So... it's already off to a good start, or at least a memorable one. Those are two things that tend not to happen. But then you have a William Holden noir style character monologue that is actually done right and adds more to the story's atmosphere than it really should. You have a spooky plot, and on top of that you have some extremely well done and downright spooky scenes. From start to finish it's just a well executed movie, a well acted movie, and one that deserves to be remembered a bit more than it is. It's one of the movies that I always recommend to people.