San Francisco Police Officer Jessica Sheperd (Judd) is going for the big time. She's just gotten a promotion from beat cop to Inspector in Homicide, which is a dream job. She's got a lot to prove since her Dad was a serial killer who ended his spate of deaths by killing Jessica's Mom and then himself.

But, she's got the Police Commissioner (Jackson) on her side. John Mills (Jackson) took the 6-year-old orphan of his former partner and raised her to be the best cop around. He predicts Jessica will be the next Police Chief.

But, Jessica's got a dark secret. She's haunted by her father's actions and she's burying those ghosts with alcohol and sexual encounters.

When her former sexual partners start showing up dead and she's having blank spells, Jessica and most everyone else suspect her of being the killer. But is she?

While "Twisted" is weak in some areas, the mystery is still there. This is one of the better acting jobs by Judd, who really goes from luminous to haunted in the space of a few minutes.

Rebecca Kyle, September 2008

TERRIBLE script with no thrills AT ALL, and a "least likely suspect" you see coming a mile away (since there are only three principal characters in the movie.) Ashley Judd is, at best, mis-cast, playing a hard-bitten SF cop like she was auditioning for the New Mouskateers. An utterly mediocre movie by a good director - the only real mystery.

pretty good for the genre.it has suspense,plot twists,a nice
creepy,dark atmosphere.it drop some nice tantalizing clues as to who
the killer may be.Ashley Judd make a real good heroine.she's
certainly credible in he role,as a new homicide inspector with a more
than a little baggage.Sam Jackson is great(once again,as her mentor,as
well as the commissioner.Andy Garcia plays her new partner.he was
OK,but i didn't really feel he completely fit the movie.there was just
something...i really liked David Strathairn,as a police shrink.his role
wasn't that big,but i thought he was impressive,none the less.i also
liked the great Jazz soundtrack.despite all the good things about this
movie,i wouldn't call it great.for one thing,it lacks any intense
action,it's not really riveting or harrowing.so i wouldn't classify it
as a thriller,but more a straight crime drama/murder mystery.i would
have preferred it to be a bit more exciting.for me,Twisted is a 4/5

I caught the first half of this movie on cable, and rented the DVD to see how it ended. I was enchanted, not just by the three actors (Judd whose latest is De-Lovely; Garcia from the Godfather etc; and Juckson from Pulp Fiction, The Negotiator et al), but by the over-all concept and execution.

Ignore the detractors--this is a superb story ably acted and I loved it. We in the clandestine service are quite proud of having the very highest rate of alcoholism, adultery, divorce, and suicide (I have 18 professional suicides in my professional history). I don't carry a badge, I do carry a Walther PPK Limited Edition (with a permit).

All three of these actors are gifted, but seeing Judd in this film, in contrast to her performance and complete make-over in De-Lovely, persuades me that she is one of the greatest female actors of our time and will be offering us many more superb acts with world class male actors for years to come.

This is a lovely first-rate film, and if you have lived with death and dishonor and fear including panic from time to time, this is a homecoming of sorts. Those that do not like it do not understand reality. However, to end on a humble note, spying is 90% boredom, including hours spent in hotel rooms waiting for agents to show up, and the most important skill in spying is typing--four hours for every hour of agent meeting--more if you have to transcribe the required recording of a meeting with a terrorist.

Other spy and cop/firefighter movies I have really enjoyed:
Seven (New Line Platinum Series)
Blown Away
High Crimes
The Hannibal Lecter Collection (Manhunter / The Silence of the Lambs / Hannibal)
The Departed (Widescreen Edition)
Breach (Full Screen Edition)
The Lives of Others
Pulp Fiction (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Firestorm
Ladder 49 (Widescreen Edition)

and of course anything with Alec Guiness in it (George Smily) and anying with Jason Bourne as the protagonist.

Twisted starts well but gets looser when it should get tighter and increasingly improbable just when plot twists should have us wondering how we could have missed the clues. Instead we wonder, did the writer of this screenplay paint himself into a corner so tight that he had to have workers saw off the top of his house and lower a rope to extricate him from his predicament? In this regard Twisted is like No Way Out in which Kevin Costner was out-acted by his uniform. Costner, if you recall, is pulled deeper and deeper into espionage and intrigue. It's quite good, despite Costner's involvement, until the very end. The reveal, the explanation behind every devious turn we've seen up until that point, is virtually impossible - it has the statistical likelihood of discovering an honest lawyer.

The premise, and cast, of Twisted are first rate. Ashley Judd is the protagonist. As newly promoted Detective Jessica Shepard she combines two-fisted machismo - fetching in her black wife-beater t-shirt - and lonely vulnerability - haunted, alcoholic, and alone. But hey, no wonder she's alone, the apes she drags home for demeaning one night stands have a habit of ending up dead, and before long she's the prime suspect in her own murder investigation. How awkward! Quite the pickle for the new girl on the squad, no wonder her colleagues are so tough on her. But wait, she has a secret. Her dad, who was also a cop, developed cheese-slipped-off-cracker syndrome and went on a killing spree before doing himself in. She pores over newspaper clippings, or pours over them, and drinks herself into blackouts. Is it possible she's killing her lovers during blackouts and forgetting it? Is it possible she's inherited her father's cursed genes?

It's an interesting set-up, and better movies have been made out of less. Judd does a very good job, especially considering the improbability of the situation. Andy Garcia, another talent, is convincing as her partner - he's understandably concerned - for her and himself. David Strathairn, a terrific actor, doesn't get to help Jessica, or the movie, much. As her psychiatrist he does get to mention that she might want to cut back on her drinking a bit - $160 an hour for that scary insight?! But the loose canon in this movie is John Mills, played by Samuel Jackson. Mills took over in loco parentis when Jessica's dad died, with emphasis on the loco. As mastermind super cop he groomed the young Jessica. It shows; she is the grasshopper who now outperforms the big guys and is ready to leave the temple. But there is something about Mills that is oddly detached; he is both Jessica's staunchest defender and toughest critic. Don't fear, all is revealed in the third act.

Spoiler? I hardly know her! Let's just say that the denouement of this movie is so glib, facile, lazy, and unlikely that it would have been more believable if Kevin Costner and Sean Young had wandered onto the set wearing their No Way Outfits and confessed to the crimes themselves.