I have a friend, a filmmaker, that has an idea to do a modern retelling of the Jack the Ripper killings. And then he was told about this new film called The Lodger which was basically that, and he was understandably disappointed. But now that I’ve seen the film, I’ve got to tell my friend that he has nothing to worry about because I fully believe that even on an indie budget, he can make a superior homage to the infamous Whitechapel serial killer. The Lodger is loosely based on a novel that also inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 film of the same name, filmmaker David Ondaatje –nephew of Canadian author Michael – takes subject matter loaded with creative capital and misspends it.

An all-star cast helps bring the film to life, such as it is. Alfred Molina is the loose cannon Detective Manning working out of West Hollywood, and he’s called to the scene of a murder that bears an uncanny resemblance to one he investigated seven years earlier. The strange thing is that Manning’s case was also closed seven years ago with the arrest, conviction and execution of the accused, so what’s the deal? Manning and his new partner, Street (Shane West), discover the true modus operandi of the killer: to simulate the murders of Jack the Ripper and they have four murders left before the killer disappears back into the night.

Meanwhile, a mysterious renter named Malcolm (Simon Baker) turns up at the home of Ellen Bunting (Hope Davis) to rent her guest house, and he wants a lot of privacy. In fact he’s utterly adamant about his privacy and the paintings in the guest house whose eyes are burrowing into his soul. So yeah, he’s kind of mental because he’s pretty and he talks in low timbre and he doesn’t want anyone touching his stuff, I guess. So obviously this completely unrelated story to the main cop drama will come into play later on because the filmmaker does all but tell us so in big, red, bold letters. I think Ondaatje believed that he was setting up some kind of red herring, but that would require an element of subtlety not capable of by this script.

The actors don’t fair much better despite, the pedigree. Molina is usually a master of understatement and charm, even in Pink Panther 2, but in The Lodger he’s a mean, bitter old cop that is about as invested in following the rules as he is in really trying to reconnect with his daughter. Plus we get the old homophobe cop routine in relation to Manning and his partner only to turn out that Street actually isn’t gay. Huh, what was the point of that? And when the story focuses on Davis’ Ellen, things get even worse. Davis looks like she’s rehearsing fir a zombie movie rather than portraying a deeply troubled woman. There’s also an utter disconnection from other events of the film, which makes her feel even more isolated. Every time the action shifts to the Bunting home, it’s a bizarre combination of obviousness and obliviousness. We know why we’re there, but there’s really no point in going there either.

But in the end, it comes down to the shattered fundamentals of screenwriting: don’t tell when you can show, and make sure every scene has a point. The movie’s only 90 minutes long, but it feels like a lot of time is wasted exploring characters who are merely placeholders for later action. And the so-called twisted ending would have been more intriguing with a couple of clues that something was a foot. Red herrings are one thing, but it’s like the script doesn’t even give us that. So when we start getting revelations you’re like “What?” and then “Huh?” because nothing makes much sense. And all of the sudden, you’re cool Jack the Ripper in modern times movie just seems like a waste of time. As far as I’m concerned, the idea still awaits a filmmaker to come along and do it right.