Nothing special
Written: Aug 28 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: stunning imagery, Lopez included
Cons: awful story, no character development
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| Donny's Full Review: |
Parts of this film are beautiful. They really are. But a movie needs to do more than amaze us visually - it needs to tell a story. And that's where The Cell fails. The imagery and the story are completely independent. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the story is almost an afterthought, contrived entirely so as to best show-off the films two biggest marketing angels: Jennifer Lopez's a*s and director Tarsem's artsy past in music videos. Those two things work, and they work consistently throughout, but it's not enough to save the movie.
The premise of the movie is awful. It hinges on a new technology that allows researches to wander through the ailing psyche of their patients. Perhaps the most realistic portion of the film is the beginning when the father of one patient decides to remove his son from the research center because they haven't seen any improvements in 18 months. That made perfect sense to me. In reality of course, the real breakthrough of this new technology is that it allows Jennifer Lopez to wander seductive landscapes in a vast array of sexy outfits. Not to mention the tight, black Cat Woman-like outfit she must where while being suspended in mid-air (?) before starting the procedure. Again, if you don't think too much about it, the movie is visually fantastic.
I would bet at least half of the movie is spent wandering the psyches of Edward - the never-developed billionaire's son character, and Carl - the
Billy character previously developed for audiences in Silence of the Lambs. Such character development choices as these free up Tansem to go crazy in all of the dream sequences. It was obvious to me that Tarsem must have had lots of extra footage he wasn't able to squeeze into REM's Losing My Religion video, so he took on this project. In fact, I think I spotted Michael Stipe in one of the scenes. Honestly, though, he has an eye for contrasting landscapes, images and colors - but unlike music videos - the images in a movie need to add up to something. The only scene that significantly advances the plot is the somewhat predictable child abuse scene where Lopez watches from the closet while Carl's father beats him and burns him with an iron. (Lest you forget this scene, Tarsem makes sure that Carl's next adult appearance is shirtless so that we can see the iron-shaped burn scar on his chest. Subtle, Tarsem, subtle.)
The movie was never scary to me because I was never convinced of Lopez or Vaughn ever being in danger. Touch their secret button and the session ends. The scary thing about nightmares is that you aren't aware they are nightmares at the time - sitting in the theatre, watching other people's nightmares is much less scary.
And finally, because we spend so much time in their psyches we never really get to know Lopez or Vaughn. I didn't feel like I ever had anything vested in either of those characters and the one character you do get to know, Carl the psycho killer, falls into a comma twenty minutes into the movie and dies before ever waking up. How scary is that? I thought a much better ending would be if Lopez could have awoken Carl from the comma only to find him hovering above her Cat-woman suit in the laboratory. Maybe the rehabilitation doesn't work that way, I don't pretend to understand it, but at least the killer would be alive. In general I find that to be more scary in a horror movie.
All in all, I was glad it ended with a scene between Edward and Lopez because that cemented my feelings that I didn't care a lick about the characters. I hope to see Tarsem again soon, back in music videos.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Donny
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Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 52 members
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