Saw is the first movie from writer Leigh Whannel and director James Wan.  From the marketing, you'd think it is a horror movie about a killer who puts his victims in lethal puzzles forcing them to maim themselves to escape or die trying.  In reality, the movie centers around two such victims chained to either side of a bathroom.  Dr. Gordon, played by Cary Elwes, is told that he has to find a way to kill Adam, played by writer Leigh Whannel, in six hours or his wife and daughter will be killed.  As the narrative moves forward, we find out more about the characters and the killer through flashbacks and watch as the cops try to track him down.  The police come across a few of the other puzzles and the people who have been in them, but the main story is the two guys in the bathroom.  At first, the two men collaborate trying different ways to get out, but as time goes by, they slowly start to unravel.

I've been looking forward to Saw since I read the hype about it from Sundance.  I thought the trailers were fantastic, and I hoped this was going to be like Se7en, but with more horror.  Unfortunately, I think the script suffers a bit from being written by a first-time writer and Cary Elwes almost ruined the movie completely for me with his piss poor acting.  Normally, Elwes brings the goods, or is at least good enough to disappear into the story, but in Saw, I thought he was absolutely terrible.  I think some of that has to do with the dialogue he was given.  I think a lot of the dialogue between the two in the bathroom is pretty bad, and I don't like how the characters react once time is running out.  This is kind of a story problem, so not in his control, but Elwes' character seems to get weaker when it starts to go down at the end.  I wanted to see the man overcome his weakness, not succumb to it.  If you've seen the movie, you may be thinking that he does become stronger at the end, but you'd be wrong.  His "strength" is too little too late in my book and not even necessary according to the rules of the puzzle.  If the bad acting was limited to Elwes the story could still succeed, but when the veteran of the pair isn't delivering you can't expect much from the new guy.  I just didn't buy Leigh Whannel in this situation.  He couldn't convince me it was really happening to him.  You'll see Danny Glover listed on the poster as well, but I don't know why he signed on for this.  His character is such a nothing role, you could have put anyone in there and gotten the same effect.  Danny Glover is the cop obsessed with finding the killer, Jigsaw.  Unfortunately, he doesn't have much to do other than snoop around and take part in the obligatory cop-chases-killer scene.  Saw falls victim to some of the clichés of the serial killer movie, but manages to rise above almost all the ones that get released by the studios.

Now on to the stuff I did like.  I think this is a damn good first effort from two guys doing it on their own.  The directing and cinematography are all great, although I could have done without the music video speed ramps and haphazard cutting.  They seemed a little obvious to me.  So James Wan does know the technicals of filmmaking and has a creative flair that comes through his directing.  I still love the premise, too.  I just don't think the movie lived up to it.  I've read of people comparing this to Cube, another low-budget indie horror movie where strangers are thrown together in order to survive, but I think the characters in Cube are written better.  The dialogue in Saw just got to me.  I felt like I could guess what everyone was going to say next, and there was no subtext.  This is supposed to be the stuff I did like though, ...umm...well, the premise is really good.  I also liked the ending, and we'll just leave it at that.  The ending surprised me because I played into the hands of the filmmakers.  Maybe the marketing and the hype worked their magic on me and I expected more than it could possibly deliver, I don't know.  What I do know is I was disappointed by Saw, but I look forward to what these guys come up with next.