2004, R, 97 minutes

Ashley Judd has always seemed one role away from true stardom. She has the talent and charisma to be considered for the Nicole Kidman/Renee Zellweger type of roles, but she keeps getting stuck in mediocre thrillers like Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy, High Crimes, and now Twisted. This police crime drama fails as a thriller, but Judd's compelling portrayal of a loose-cannon cop makes it watchable.

Jessica Shepard (Judd) is a tough-ass San Francisco homicide detective. She man-handles suspects and fellow officers, yet receives a promotion from police commissioner John Mills (Samuel L. Jackson). Jessica is a piece of work, having the habit of going to bars, getting drunk, and picking up strangers for sex. She had a troubled childhood, revealed through sessions with a psychiatrist (David Straithairn). Her father, a police officer, killed her mother and then himself when Jessica was a child. Mills, her father's partner, raised her.

The lady detective's first case in her new position is a tough one. The victim turns out to be a guy she once slept with. She reveals this to partner Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia), as well as to other members of the department, none of whom have taken well to her promotion over them. A few days later, another body is found, also some guy Jessica knew casually but intimately, and also having a cigarette burn on his hand.

Jessica drinks heavily at night and suffers blackouts, so she's unable to account for her time during the murders. Is someone obsessed with her, or is she actually the killer? Even Jessica doesn't know, since she spends much of her time in a drunken stupor. However, she has a case to solve, and the personal stakes grow even higher as more of her one-night-stands turn up dead.

Twisted is filled with male characters who have either slept with or are obsessed with Jessica. In other words, the movie is chock full of suspects and potential victims. This may sound like the premise of an intriguing thriller, but director Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff, Quills) forgot the thrills. The glaring obviousness of the killer's identity is almost beside the point. The movie plods along, showing us bloody corpses and pointing a finger at a new suspect every five minutes, but it never grabs hold. Its brief running time (97 minutes) and sloppy final act suggest drastic editing was done. Some additional scenes would have probably helped the movie make more sense.

On the plus side, Twisted benefits greatly from the presence of Judd, who brings intelligence and complete conviction to the silliness. Like Jodie Foster, Judd has the ability to let the audience in on her thought process. Jessica Shepard is an over-written role (how many problems can one woman have?), but Judd plows through it with star power. She's fascinating to watch, turning all of Jessica's flaws into a performance that definitely shows her strength as an actress.

Twisted is a thriller without thrills -- one that's as generic as its title -- but Ashley Judd elevates the movie into something watchable. Past Oscar nominees Jackson and Garcia are completely wasted here, but their leading lady shines. If Judd ever gets hold of a great script, Nicole Kidman had better watch her back.