Isaiah Washington Shines As 'Blue Caprice' Recalls Beltway Sniper Attacks

Blue Caprice, which opens in the U.S. on Friday (September 27, 2013), follows the story of an abandoned boy lured to America and drawn into the shadow of a dangerous father figure. Same old story right? Well, not exactly. Alexandre Moors' new movie is inspired by the real life events that led to the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks.

In October 2002, ten people were killed and three other victims critically injured in several locations throughout the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and along Interstate 95 in Virginia after John Allen Muhammad and Lee Bod Malvo went on a sniper rampage in a 1990 Chevrolet Caprice sedan.

The movie documents the mechanisms that lead its subjects to embrace physical violence and paints a riveting portrait of 21st-century America and its cold-blood killers.

The stark, often shocking movie, has divided critics.

"Blue Caprice" doesn't offer the sense of catharsis or closure, let alone new information, that makes it more than a cold, if disciplined, directorial exercise," said the Washington Post.

"The grainy texture of the imagery is darkly arresting. Isaiah Washington is charismatic and fearsome, channeling a toxic mix of compassion and rage," said the Los Angeles Times.

Gary Goldstein of the same publication bluntly told cinema fans, "Don't miss it," while the Boston Globe said, "The film's a character piece with a tightening noose of suspense, and while it has its artsy-indie-dawdly moments, it's disturbing in ways that aren't easy to shake."

The Chicago Reader added, "Although the actors are fine, writer-director Alexandre Moors's feature debut suffers from a lulling tonal sameness."

Though Blue Caprice as a whole appears to be worth a trip to the cinema, Isaiah Washington's performance as Muhammad appears to be the real draw here. A hugely respected actor in Hollywood, Washington is probably still best known for Steven Soderbergh's classic Out of Sight.

Watch the Blue Caprice trailer:

Blue Caprice is an oddly different role for the actor - portraying a man driven to heinous acts due to his own self-hatred. In an interview with the Miami Herald, Washington explained, "I wanted to step out of my comfort zone.I knew there was a huge chance of unbelievable failure for me, which would have been just horrible.

"But I decided to trust what I felt about this character and my director and just be. We only had one creative disagreement during the shoot - a scene in which I'm looking around at the security cameras at a store. I said 'I don't want to be playing a coward here. I don't want to come off as a loser.' And Alexandre said 'We're not making the f------ Bourne Identity here!' He was right, of course."

Blue Caprice hits theaters on Friday (September 27, 2013).