'Blue Caprice' A Review

Blue Caprice is a drama based on the DC Sniper. The story follows John(Isaiah Washington) as he adopts, indoctrinates, and trains teenage Lee(Tequan Richmond). The film has an atonal bizarre quality, an unsettling energy reminiscent of experimental music with no melody or harmony. John meets Lee in the Caribbean and brings him to the US and teaches him to kill.

The film isn't sympathetic but it also doesn't demonize its subjects. It's cold, dispassionate, and distant. It conveys real madness, true insanity. There is no motive to the crime and the odd, stilted performances convey this obvious disconnect from reality without being disconnecting from reality. Isiah Washington as John is charming and startling how quickly he can move from caring to homicidal but doing so in a way that makes it seem like they are both natural and logical to him. Because of this maniacal fluidity we believe that the few people close to him had no idea how crazy he actually was, how far he was willing to go. Tequan Richmond's performance as Lee is a study in non-acting, so much so I wondered frequently if it was actually bad acting, he is a clean slate, conveys little to no emotion, goes where he's pointed and kills when he's told. His brainwashing or molding by John is more a study of pressure and time as opposed to violence and isolation. It paints a very complicated and haunting portrait of the circumstances that led up to the murders.

If there is a fault in the film it is intrinsic within the story itself. There is no why, there is no reveal, there is no reason.

Blue Caprice is a stark portrait of a broken mind.

See It.