Although the book must have been written with him in mind, Morgan Freeman isn't as good as one might expect as Det. Alex Cross in this unremarkable serial-killer thriller. He tries his best, but the soft-pedaled screenplay leaves the accomplished actor without much to work with, looking more like a pale imitation of The Silence of the Lambs (1992) than a film version of James Patterson's ferocious, gripping novel. The one bright spot is the performance of Ashley Judd, compelling and believable as the victim who got away. The involved plotline (which deals with a pair of killers collaborating in North Carolina and California) is fairly well-handled, but the elements at the novel's heart -- Cross' character and the intense scenes of the women's captivity -- seem to have been forgotten. The film was banned in Frederick, Maryland, upon release because of similar crimes under investigation at the time.