Made-for-TV movies or even made-for-Cable TV movies
don’t always find as wide an audience as they could, but that’s actually
part of the beauty of them when a viewer discovers one that truly
excels. Well, in this case anyway, one that starts off truly
excelling. Based on a true story about an arsonist setting fires in
Southern California during the 1980s, “Point Of Origin” attempts to
dissect the how and why of the events without ever really coming to any
solid conclusions.
John Orr (Ray Liotta, “Heartbreakers”) is the
leading expert in the fire department when it comes to figuring out how
a blaze spread, where it started and how. He intuitively figures out
whether one was caused by an accident or by a deliberate act, in which
case he is able to produce the evidence. Working under him and learning
the skill as best he can is Keith Lang (John Leguizamo, “Ice Age”). As
additional fires continue to be set off and more victims pile up, a task
force is created to investigate the crimes and produce a suspect.
The first half of the film is absolutely riveting
in showing John figuring out how the fires are being set, having a
possible fascination with the arsonist and the toll it takes on his
family. The crimes feel familiar to him, as if somebody knows he’ll
figure it out and is toying with him. There’s even a character
introduced who matches the description given by two witnesses and claims
to be a fireman, but can we believe what we’re actually seeing? Whereas
the first half of “Point of Origin” has all the makings of an intense
thriller, the second half falls entirely apart. It’s fine that some of
characters aren’t what they first appear, but the sudden lapse into
overblown special effects, heroic and then “Matrix”-like action
sequences pull us so far out of the film that it becomes ludicrous.
Director Newton Thomas Sigel does use special
effects in the first half to compliment the action on the screen and to
invoke a sense of what a fireman must do in his head to piece together
how a fire started, spread and ended. One of the characters undergoes
such a transformation throughout the film that we end up so disgusted
with the secrets that it doesn’t occur to us that it explains very
little about the fires. I don’t necessarily need to be spoon-fed all
the answers, but “Point of Origin” doesn’t shed enough light on its
origins to make the sense that it should.
HBO has released the film in a very solid looking
Widescreen transfer. Picture quality is very nice looking, especially
with all the effects sequences with the fires, and audio is pretty sweet
sounding too. As for extras, they include some cast and crew bios and
an audio commentary with Newton Thomas Sigel. As commentaries go, Sigel
does give some insight into how scenes were meant to play out during a
first and second viewing, only he doesn’t recognize the project’s
shortcomings. It’s a shame because a little honesty would have gone a
long way.
The film has an outstanding cast that includes Ling
Bai (“The Crow”), Ronny Cox (“RoboCop”) and Illeana Douglas (“Stir of
Echoes”) in supporting roles, some very nice effects and a terrific
first half. It’s very unfortunate that Sigel takes everything he so
carefully sets up and throws it out the window in favor of creating a
muddled final act. Despite who was finally convicted for the crime, the
film never builds a solid enough to case to justify its conclusion.
