Amanda Jennings has exquisite taste in art, as apparent in the successful gallery she runs in downtown Brockton. Unfortunately, she does not have commensurate taste in men. She married and later divorced the sleazy photo-journalist Kley, who has returned home to demand visitation privileges with their young son Cody. Amanda is also attracted to an oily FBI agent, Craig Sayers. "Killer Inspiration" (a.k.a., "Muse") struggles in tying together an improbable set of relationships.
It is easy to lose track of how many times Kley violates the restraining order against him and how many times the FBI agent crosses the line of propriety in flirting with Amanda. He is even reprimanded by his female partner, who should file a complaint about him with Human Resources. The main focus of everyone should be on a serial killer on the loose, who throttles his victims and brands them with his mark of "Infinity." Now, the killer has targeted Amanda and her little boy.
It was understandable that Amanda cut off communications with her bestie Hailey, the FBI agent Sayers, and the kind deputy sheriff Sean Martell. After all, the killer had kidnapped Cody and was threatening to kill him if Amanda went to the authorities.
But it was surprising that she did confide in the luckless loser Kley. Of course, Kley accomplished nothing more than getting himself killed. At a crucial point in the action, Kley places a mysterious phone call to a stranger. What was that all about? This was a loose end in the plotting.
The actress playing Amanda was successful in conveying the unconditional love of a parent for a child. Her performance was especially strong in the closing action sequence where she was "leading on" the killer with romantic innuendo in the attempt to save Cody. Still, the film was not entirely successful weaving together the different relationships and identifying the twisted thinking of the killer. It was never made clear what was his "game" in playing cat-and-mouse with Amanda. As a film, "Muse" seemed branded with too many stock devices of the thriller genre.
It is easy to lose track of how many times Kley violates the restraining order against him and how many times the FBI agent crosses the line of propriety in flirting with Amanda. He is even reprimanded by his female partner, who should file a complaint about him with Human Resources. The main focus of everyone should be on a serial killer on the loose, who throttles his victims and brands them with his mark of "Infinity." Now, the killer has targeted Amanda and her little boy.
It was understandable that Amanda cut off communications with her bestie Hailey, the FBI agent Sayers, and the kind deputy sheriff Sean Martell. After all, the killer had kidnapped Cody and was threatening to kill him if Amanda went to the authorities.
But it was surprising that she did confide in the luckless loser Kley. Of course, Kley accomplished nothing more than getting himself killed. At a crucial point in the action, Kley places a mysterious phone call to a stranger. What was that all about? This was a loose end in the plotting.
The actress playing Amanda was successful in conveying the unconditional love of a parent for a child. Her performance was especially strong in the closing action sequence where she was "leading on" the killer with romantic innuendo in the attempt to save Cody. Still, the film was not entirely successful weaving together the different relationships and identifying the twisted thinking of the killer. It was never made clear what was his "game" in playing cat-and-mouse with Amanda. As a film, "Muse" seemed branded with too many stock devices of the thriller genre.