Milla Jovovich stars in Faces in the Crowd as Anna Marchant, a woman who seems to have everything going for her. She lives with her boyfriend, Bryce (Michael Shanks), and she loves spending time with her two best friends, Nina (Valentina Vargas) and Francine (Sarah Wayne Callies). The city has been plagued by a serial killer nicknamed "Tearjerk Jack", and while walking home one night, Anan sees him in action. The murderer pursues her and she falls from a bridge, hitting her head on a railing. When Anna awakens in the hospital, she finds that she has a medical condition known as Prosopagnosia or face blindness. With this, Anna's memory is intact, but she doesn't recognize people's faces, and the faces which she sees change at random. Thus, she doesn't recognize Bryce, Anna, or Francine, although she remember who they are. This doesn't please Detective Kerrest (Julian McMahon), as Anna can't identify the killer, despite the fact that she witnessed the crime. "Jack" took Anna's purse and cell phone during the attack, so now not only does she have to try and cope with her new condition, she must deal with the fact that the killer is now after her.

There's no doubt about it, Faces in the Crowd offers something different. We've seen murder-mysteries involving amnesia before, but that's not what's happening here. Anna has no trouble remembering what happened before her accident, she simply doesn't recognize anyone, including her own reflection. This impairment means that she not only can't identify the killer, but she wouldn't know the person if they were standing right in front of her. This creates an interesting plot-point where Anna can be openly stalked by the murderer and have no idea what's happening. This also means that Kerrest must help Anna find a unique way to identify the killer.

For some reason, Writer/Director Julien Magnat takes this intriguing idea and throws two more movies on top of it. Now there's nothing wrong with fleshing out a story, but just like a human body, a movie can collapse under the weight of too much flesh. First of all, Magnat decides to focus on how Anna copes with her new disorder. This part plays like a Lifetime movie as we watch her courageously battle against the odds in order to get out and about. The movie also brings in a romantic angle which only slows things down.

Faces in the Crowd is also too clever for its own good. When Anna looks at those who should be familiar to her, she sees unrecognizable faces. In order to achieve this effect, Magnat replaces the original actors with completely different people. This means that the primary characters are played by different actors throughout the movie. All of the actors have similar features, but they are different people. This throws the viewers into Anna's shoes, as we aren't completely sure that we're looking at the right person. This is a great idea, but it unnecessarily complicates the movie. Bryce is an underwritten character to begin with, and when Anna can't recognize him, we can't either, because we honestly can't remember what he looked like to begin with.

This is yet another missed opportunity movie. Magnat could have made a lean 90-minute thriller which would have stood out in the crowd with its unique idea. Instead, Faces in the Crowd is a needlessly bloated movie which tries the viewer's patience. It's certainly worth a rental, but it blows its chance to stand out in the crowd.

Faces in the Crowd may set a record for having the most actors play the least amount of characters on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Millennium Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 22 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing only a hint of grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look very good and the picture is never overly dark or bright. The level of detail is good and the depth is acceptable. The Disc carries a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 2.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. Dolby TrueHD has come a long way lately and this is one of the better tracks that I've heard. The amount of detail in the surround channels is very impressive, as we can pick out very minute sounds. The stereo and surround effects really add to the suspenseful sequences. The subwoofer gets involved as well, but it never overpowers the dialogue.

The Faces in the Crowd Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. "Making Faces" (3 minutes) is a very brief featurette in which Magnat and Jovovich talk about the story and the challenge of making a movie with this premise. "Doppelgangers" (6 minutes) looks at how similar looking actors were used to play the same character. Seeing this process in action doesn't make the movie any easier to digest. "Cast of Characters" (5 minutes) has the primary cast (not the doppelgangers) talking about their characters and their approach to making the film.