Jennifer 8 is written and directed by Bruce Robinson. It stars Andy Garcia, Uma Thurman, John Malkovich, Lance Henriksen, Kathy Baker and Graham Beckel. Music is by Christopher Young and cinematography by Conrad Hall.

The small town of Eureka and John Berlin (Garcia) is the new cop in the precinct. When a severed hand is found at the local dump it leads Berlin to believe a serial killer is at work. One who has a penchant for blind girls.

The problems quickly mounted up for Jennifer 8, it flopped big in America and went straight to home format release in the UK. Problems back stage got so bad that Bruce Robinson quit Hollywood and never made another film for 19 years! In spite of these facts, it's not the monstrosity it was originally painted as back on its "limited" release.

It's a frustrating film in many ways because it promises so much. There's bags of moody atmospherics wrung out by Conrad Hall's superb photography, where he filters most things via minimal lighting. Much of the play unfolds in ominous surroundings, where dialogue exchanges are either hushed or laced with harried fervour, and the writing is actually quite smart as it blends psycho thriller staples with strong characterisations that are in turn boosted by committed acting performances. Yet these things can't compensate for the too long run time, a rushed ending and some awkward tonal shifts that often take you out of the required mood. The rushed ending is particularly galling, after asking the audience to stay with the pic for two hours, it's not unreasonable to expect a good long and dramatic finale, sadly that's not the case.

Fans of neo-noir type visuals have some interest here, as does anyone who likes the type of serial killer movies that dominated the late 80s and early 90s before Fincher's Seven raised the bar. 6/10

It's a long and complex movie. Complex not because there are too many subplots. (There are only two interwoven plots: the solution of the mystery and the mating of Andy Garcia and Uma Thurman.) It's just that we follow events in considerable detail. That's okay, in itself, but the climax itself -- the revelation and killing of a serial murderer -- isn't well adumbrated. The climax pivots on the finding of an antihistamine capsule and everything falls together in the last fifteen minutes without any previous hints.

The director follows most of the rules. Nothing fancy. He does give us two outstanding scenes. In the first, Uma Thurman, who has been blind since childhood and sequestered in a bleak institution is taken to a Christmas party by Garcia, the detective investigating serial murders, in one of which cases she is a witness. A friend dresses her up and covers her with makeup for her debut. (I liked her better as a lean lanky-looking Bohemian with a cello. Dressed up she looks a little whorish.) The party begins well. But later she finds herself standing alone in the middle of a dozen drunken guests who bump into her from unexpected directions. The record player is blaring "Louie Louie," and everyone ignores her. Her anxiety is manifest as she is slowly encircled by the camera, and we are as confused and frightened as she is. Thurman and the director do a polished job here.

Another memorable scene is the interrogation of Garcia by John Malkovich. Malkovich hams it up as usual. He seems to be constantly sniffing and speaks as if he had a cold. "You got mbarried but byew had a bad mbarriage, didn't byew?" But that's okay too. It must have been a hard scene to shoot. It's full of tight close ups of the two faces, sometimes only inches apart. Sometimes Malkovich even whispers into Garcia's ear. Garcia is tense, grief stricken, and angry. Malkovich is sly and insinuating. There is no music in the scene. Aside from the dialogue everything is perfectly quiet, except for the squeaking of wheeled office chairs or the harsh breathing of the actors. One wrong move, one errant jactitation, one delinquent vocal chord, and everything goes back to Square One. Whatever troubles the scene might have given the film makers, what we see on screen is about as good as it gets. Two real professionals at work in front of a camera.

I'll make the rest of the points kind of quickly. Conrad Hall is a great cinematographer, and he gets some of the scenic locations down neatly. But -- man, is this gloomy. Okay, we don't expect it to be otherwise when it's a howling blizzard and three in the morning. But the interiors are almost as dark. (Enough with the symbolism!) Why is a police laboratory so dark we can hardly make out the faces? There is no contrast between interiors and exteriors. Somebody turn on the lights!

The director should get no more than a gentleman's C for the introduction of the institute's janitor. An elevator door opens. We see a man's back. The man turns around. Jump to a close up of his bald head and gargoyle face with glasses like coke-bottle bottoms. It would have been fine in a movie with a title like "I Dismember Mamma." There us some gratuitous nudity too. I found it objectionable for two reasons. One is that there wasn't enough of it. Second is that a body double is used. Much better to have had a long long scene of gratuitous nudity using the lissome blond herself.

Maurice Jarre evidently had his score thrown out. The replacement is pretty good. This murky and rather solemn film is unimaginable with a loud action-y score full of electronic percussion and unceasing in its torture. It's nice that Thurman plays a music teacher at the institute but I kind of wish the instrument we had seen her with had been something other than a cello. It must be played in an undignified position and is the second most preposterous instrument in an orchestra, the first being the Glockenspiel.

Oh -- and by the way, Garcia tracks the murderer down by following a trail of clues to a house many hours' drive away, in Oakland. While he's riffing through the drawers, he's caught by the murderer and framed. How did the murderer know that Garcia would be there?

Eureka's not a bad little town, although it's rainy all winter and foggy all summer. It keeps the riff-raff out. My ship used to dock at Field's Landing. I wonder if the Ranchotel is still open? Very friendly patrons.

Police detective John Berlin (Andy Garcia) moves from L.A. to the small town of Eureka. There's a dead body before even he starts his job. A suicide is found in the garbage dump. Freddy Ross (Lance Henriksen) is his partner. Then they find a hand. There was a girl nicknamed Jennifer found a couple of years ago without a head or hands. Mike Blattis is the local reporter. John Taylor is a cop who thinks that Berlin stole his promotion. His boss Citrine is gun-shy after the last debacle. Berlin is staying with Ross and his wife Margie. The excessive scars on the hand leads them to the victim being blind named Amber studying at a local institute. They interview her blind friend Helena (Uma Thurman). Only Berlin believes that there is a serial killer.

This is a rather slow murder mystery thriller. I like the mood. Uma Thurman is gorgeous as the blind girl. However 2 hours is simply too long for a simple murder mystery. There aren't enough twists and turns to justify spending so much time. Written and directed by Bruce Robinson, I think another filmmaker would have cut the movie shorter. He's probably more used to movies with much more stuff to squeeze in. There are too many sections where not much happens in the investigation.