A “red herring” in a mystery refers to a seemingly important clue that leads viewers down a false path, making them think they’ve got the plot figured out – then surprise! There’s a twist.

“Taking Lives” is so full of red herrings, audiences should get together and open up a cannery.

The film’s not altogether terrible. Angelina Jolie takes what could be a stereotypical “tough but icy female cop” role and plays it with quietly intense understatement throughout most of the movie. Her character, FBI Special Agent Illeana Scott, is a renowned and unorthodox profiler of serial killers brought in to assist police in Montreal, Quebec, when construction workers dig up a bizarrely mutilated body in a park.

Though her methods include lying in the freshly opened grave to get a feel for the murderer’s motives, she’s also a shrewd observer of human nature and clearly knows how to do her job. Director D.J. Caruso brings audiences into her realm in scenes where she’s scoping out a witness or surveying a suspect’s childhood home by honing in on all the miniscule details she notices – a scratch on a wooden floor, a reaction to certain words.

The focus leaves the investigation and turns more to the characters when she meets James Costa, an art dealer played by Ethan Hawke, who’s witnessed another killing. Jolie and Hawke gingerly realize they’re attracted to each other as the case progresses, with Jolie at one point telling her Montreal chief (French film star Tcheky Karyo) that she fears her emotional involvement might cloud her judgment. Of course, for the sake of the plot, he encourages her to stay.

The two lead actors do manage some good chemistry in the film. Once she allows herself to get close to him, her tough cop exterior melts away and she turns giddy, clearly experiencing love for the first time. Hawke is convincing as an ordinary guy thrust into several life-or-death scenarios.

Now on to the less-than-positive elements of the movie. Purportedly based on true events, the screenplay was adapted from a novel by Michael Pye. The novel chronicled the murders and introduced the concept that the serial killer was not just dispatching victims – he was assuming their identities (always single, nonsocial men) and living their lives for several months at a time. The one minor change from book to screenplay? Pye’s novel didn’t include Angelina Jolie’s character at all. Screenwriter Jon Bokenkamp made her up to introduce the romantic tension angle. Not that her character is badly written – or played – but “Taking Lives” would have been a vastly different film without her, a film I think I’d like to have seen.

Setting the movie in Montreal meant the opportunity to film in several European-looking locales, which adds to the “outsider” feeling viewers get from Jolie’s character. But with the geography comes the problem of the language barrier. Except for a couple of very contrived scenes where Jolie’s French-speaking police colleagues try to exclude her from their conversation, the local cops deliver all their lines in thickly accented English, even when talking to each other privately. This is far more distracting than subtitles, in my book, and I’m almost insulted that the filmmakers didn’t think their American movie audiences would – or could – handle subtitles well enough to keep the dialog in French.

And of course, there are the red herrings. Just about every time a character is established, the director makes sure audiences suspect him or her by giving away a tiny clue. But the film doesn’t go to the trouble of wrapping up these loose threads – we don’t get the satisfaction of finding out why the policeman was folding little paper figurines just like those found at the killer’s home, for example.

After several of these “ha ha, we fooled you” turns in the plot, viewers start to get annoyed. There’s a point where the red herrings start to backfire, because we know they’re a clear signal that this person is not the killer.

For fans of FBI stories and psychological profilers, “Taking Lives” is not a half-bad piece of work. If you’re in it for the “whodunit,” though, think twice about ponying up the ticket price.

“Taking Lives”

Rated R for strong violence including disturbing images, language and some sexuality

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland, Gena Rowlands

Directed by: D.J. Caruso

Length: Approximately two hours

Now playing at: Astoria Gateway Cinemas, Cannes Cinema Center in Seaside

Short take: Angelina Jolie is a quietly intense FBI profiler working with witness Ethan Hawke to catch a serial killer who assumes the identities of his victims. Though the stars play their roles well enough, the film tries too hard to trick its audience with plot twists and surprises around evry corner.

Rating: Two stars (out of four)