The Bone Collector

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

Denzel Washington is a quadriplegic forensics expert. Angelina Jolie is a young N.Y.P.D. beat cop who discovers an ugly crime, an unsuspected gift for intellectual detective work and, eventually, a romantic attachment to Washington's character as the two try to ensnare a particularly unpleasant serial killer. The movie doesn't stand up to close, logical parsing. But Noyce's direction is atmospheric in the dank, currently chic manner; his actors spunky and attractive; and the path to the final, rather conventional, revelation is strewn with grotesque and suspenseful difficulties. It's kind of fun--if you have the stomach for its more grisly passages.

--R.S.