I Know Who Killed Me

I Know Who Killed Me is what happens when the makers of a movie are so convinced they are making Great Art, that they completely overlook the fact that it is atrocious crap. Normally a movie this ambitious would be able to skate by on that ambition alone, but every cell of this movie is dripping in such smug pretension, such desperation to be edgy, that it just comes off as grating.

Lindsey Lohan plays Aubrey Fleming, a young woman who is abducted by the local serial killer. After her abduction, a second woman, Dakota Moss, who looks exactly like Aubrey is found lying on the side of the road with a missing hand and leg. Everyone is convinced Dakota is Aubrey suffering from some sort of delusion based on her trauma, however Dakota is determined to investigate exactly what happened to Aubrey and uncover their relationship.

Lohan, naturally, gives an atrocious performance. Incredibly dull, lifeless, and there's no difference in performance between Aubrey and Dakota. Watching this movie after watching episodes of Orphan Black really highlights just how lazy Lohan is as an actress (although the same can now be said for dozens of actors playing two roles in movies). While she is the most obvious failure in the movie, she isn't helped much by the direction.

Visually, I Know Who Killed Me was going for a cross between Sin City and Schindler's List. Yes, there is a scene in the movie that is a direct rip-off of the little girl in the red coat. The frames are bursting with visual symbolism, most obviously the use of the color blue. Everything is slathered in blues, from blue roses to the killer's blue glass weapons. But, of course, blue does not actually symbolize anything. The symbols are there because great movies utilize symbols, not as any key to reveal more about the movie, much less the human experience.

And stylistically, the movie loves over lapping shots, duo shots. Lots of shots to back up the whole "two women, one face" motif. But in order for all those trick shots to work, there needed to be an element of B-movie camp. Kill Bill was able to pull off similar effects by drawing directly on the grind-house, kung-fu movie aesthetic. I Know Who Killed Me takes itself far too seriously to make those shots, and even the basic plot, the kind of campy fun a movie like this should be.

And that's the primary fault of the movie. It takes itself deadly seriously. For a movie about a stripper who gets a robot hand, the movie has no sense of humor. It needed to be fun, and it just isn't. If you would like insight into just how pretentious this movie is, the original ending of the film was supposed to be the reveal that everything that happened was simply part of a short story Aubrey wrote. Worse than merely "it was all a dream" this would have been the ultimate example of smug satisfaction, straight up telling the audience how brilliant Aubrey (and by extension the movie) is. Despite this ending being removed, all the smug satisfaction leading up to it still sticks around. The movie is just not fun.