Detective John Hobbes (Denzel Washington) witnesses the execution of a criminal (Elias Koteas) Hobbes put away, but is then haunted by copycat killings that are impossible to explain.
I think most people agree that Washington's performance is fantastic. He seemed to spend a few years protecting us from serial killers ("Virtuosity," "The Bone Collector") and his Hobbes is likable and sympathetic. Kazan's screenplay lags in the middle of a film that could have found twenty minutes to cut easily. Once Hobbes figures out what is going on, including a pointless "so you're telling me..."-type scene, I looked at the running time and saw that we were only half way through the film. Sutherland's Lt. Stanton character is also poorly written, the film hints that he knows more than he's letting on. The cast list is impressive, but the actors are stuck in a rigid story that couldn't drift too far from the material or else the twist ending would not work, hence the unnecessary narration.
"Fallen" did not do very well at the box office, but in this era of re-imaginings, sequels, and re-bootings, someone could continue the story.
