|
|
The Cell... |
|
Movie Review: The Cell
Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Marianne
Jean-Baptiste, Jake Weber, Dylan
Baker
Director: Tarsem Singh
Producer: Julio Caro, Eric McLeod
|
The Cell is a science fiction tale that propels a scientist,
Catherine (Jennifer Lopez), and the viewer into the mind of a serial killer. An
experimental scientific procedure enables her to enter the mind of comatose |
|
patients, usually to help find answers to
unlock their consciousness. When a serial killer falls into a coma before detectives can
find his last known victim, Catherine is enlisted to enter the dark world of his mind to
find the location of the "Cell" where he keeps and eventually kills the women
who fall prey to his insanity.
Jennifer Lopez plays Catherine Deane, a psychologist involved in an ultra high tech form
of therapy. Using a whiz bang machine, she can enter the subconscious of her patients.
Decked out in a body suit that appears to be made of red Twizzlers, Catherine closes her
eyes and awakens in the |
|
dreamscapes of her clients, where she
wanders through trippy MTV style video sets, dispensing psychological bromides while
wearing the kind of outfits that Cher and Madonna trot out for award shows.
The story begins within the mind of Edward Baines (Colton James), a comatose little boy.
Set against blue |
skies and majestic desert sand dunes, we
watch as Catherine tries to win the trust of the child, hoping to eventually draw him back
to the real world. The segment is impressively shot and, unfortunately, the high point of
the film.
While Catherine strolls through the psychic Sahara, whacked out serial killer Carl
Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) wages a terror campaign outside the lab, torturing women to
death and then turning their corpses into animated dolls.
After the lunatic is captured and falls into a coma, straight arrow FBI agent Peter |
|
|
Novak (Vince Vaughn) turns to Catherine and
her comrades for help. Somewhere, Carl's latest victim, Julia Hickson (Tara Subkoff) is
trapped in a huge torture tank that fills with water every few hours. The young woman is
destined for a horrible death, unless Catherine can enter his mind and discover the
location of |
|
the lethal aquarium. The bulk of the movie
hops between Catherine's forays into the killer's cranium and disturbing shots of a
frantic Julia trying not to drown.
The makings of a solid film are present, but Tarsem is so fixated on creating groovy
tripscapes that he neglects everything else. While Julia's situation remains dire, there
is no sense of danger with any of the principal players. Character development is
virtually nonexistent, leaving Lopez and Vaughn |
|
stuck in one-dimensional roles.
The Cell is certainly not for all tastes. In fact, it may not be for any tastes. Pure
freak fans will likely be happy, but real moviegoers will probably be disappointed. For
example, while the story is twisted enough to make any closet Lynchian giddy, there are
enough stupid holes in it to make the entire go-inside-his-mind plot irrelevant. In the
end, Carl's brain dump doesn't provide the clues to the cell's whereabouts, the answer is
sitting right there in his real-world basement. |
|
