The
Cell (2000)
Cinema has changed, evolved, become more visually glorious
yet again. "The Cell" sets us up for the next level
of cinema. It opens our minds a step further to all
that is possible in cinema in this modern, computerized
image age. After this film the possibilities seem even
more endless than before.
Visually gorgeous and seemingly distinct, "The Cell"
actually meshes together previous films like "The Matrix,"
"The Silence of the Lambs," "Seven,"
"Legend," "Psycho"
and the work of Jeunet and Cano and David
Lynch into a discomforting, often repelling, always
fascinating, ocular feast. If Lynch directed "The Matrix,"
that's what we get here. But it's more than that. It's
new and fresh and bold. Visually, anyway.
Sure, the plot is a bit thin. Riffing off the 1983
film "Brainstorm," the story has a group of scientist
working on a sort of "mind melding" computerized system
that allows child psychologist Jennifer Lopez to enter
the mind of a young boy in a coma. She finds herself
making little process, however. Inserted into this story
is FBI agent Vince Vaughn, who is attempting desperately
to find a serial killer, or to be more specific, one
of his kidnapping victims. When Vaughn's plot appears,
we have no doubt that, when all is said and done, these
two storylines will converge. And indeed they do.
But plot isn't really what "The Cell" is about. It's
about the mind of a sick and twisted man. It's about
film's capacity to peak into that mind. The film reaches
visually farther into the demented thought processes
of a serial killer than any film ever has. It creates
a terrifying world in a way only film can. And, in this
way, it is magnificent. The computer animation driven
sequences in "The Cell" are nothing short of the most
fantastic and mind-blowing stuff you will see all year.
This film continually, frame after frame, surprises
and shocks us with it's imagination and it's glorious,
repugnant beauty. It has to be seen to be believed.
It is unreal. Like the most wondrous and captivating
modern art being produced in the 21st century, "The
Cell" is a vast landscape of alternating stunning beauty
and nightmare horror. If you walk out of this film,
thinking you haven't experienced some new revelation
in cinema, then you have lost the capacity to be surprised.
The acting in the film may not be the overblown, over
dramatized thespianism of an "Oscar Caliber Film," but
it is quite good in it's subtlety. Vaughn gets back
on track as an actor who can make the ordinary extraordinary.
His work in the film is perfect in it's ability to help
weave all the elements of the plot together here. Lopez
is also quite good. Not needing to be excessive, Lopez
also wows us with her debility. Likewise, Vincent D'Onofrio
does quite well as the serial killer, making us both
hate him and feel sorry for him, which is not an easy
feat. And second string players like Dylan Baker and
Marianne Jean-Baptist continue to keep the plot running
and the dialogue from becoming absurd. And let's face
it, in the hands of less talented people, this film's
plot could become ridiculous.
"The Cell" was directed by Tarsem Singh, a newcomer
who has worked on music videos. Here, he establishes
himself as one of our most vibrant and important feature
filmmakers in one fell swoop. If this is his first film,
one cannot help but imagine the work yet to come. It's
mind-blowing. I can't wait to see what is inside his
mind next.
Notes:
Singh's work has often been credited simply to "Tarsem."
His most well known work prior to this film may very
well be his video for R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion"
which won 6 MTV awards in 1991.
CO-produced by Julio Caro who, it appears is in no
way related to Marc Caro.
Written by Mark Protosevich, who also CO-produces.
Score by Howard Shore.
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