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All Movie Info
Directed By
Tarsem
Written By:
Mark Protosevich
Cast:
Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Dylan Baker, Jake Weber, Patrick Bauchau, James Gammon, Tara Subkoff, Gareth Williams, Colton James
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The Cell (2000)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
July 22nd, 2007
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'The Cell' is one of the strangest, most enthralling movies I have ever seen, a work of pure, unrestrained creativity, unlike anything else. It is a blend of fantasy and thriller, rendered with incredible, disturbing, and exotic visual effects. Jennifer Lopez is Catherine, a social worker and psychologist who is recruited to participate in a new experimental method that allows her to try and connect with patients on a subconscious level, as she dives into their minds, and experiences their deepest and darkest memories. She is involved with a young boy named Edward, whose wealthy parents are concerned that the treatment is not working, but Catherine is committed to helping him, and to bringing him out of his coma. Then, she gets a bigger and more challenging assignment: to travel into the head of Carl Stargher (D'Onofrio), a demented serial killer who has recently been captured, discovered in catatonia, the whereabouts of his most recent victim still unknown. That is what Catherine is supposed to dig out of him. What she encounters are the recollections of his abusive, sad childhood, and the illusory, depraved world he has made for himself, where he is king, and has frightening power. She devotes her effort to saving Carl the child, who represents all the good that may still remain inside him, and stands to be consumed by the greater and more aggressive evil. The surreal landscape of Carl's dreams is a mixture of the absurdly beautiful and the grossly horrific, often juxtaposed next to each other, or alternating swiftly from one to the other.
That is what I find most impressive about the movie; its gorgeous and inventive costume design, and its art direction, as a technical achievement, it cannot be faulted. Its plot has multiple layers to it, it is, on the one hand, a race against time, with FBI agents, led by Novak (Vince Vaughn) struggling to find the victim before she dies, it is also science fiction, about alternate realities and the technology that would allow someone to travel into the mind of someone else, and the idea that Wes Craven played upon in Nightmare on Elm Street, that if you die in a dream, then you die in real life, as your mind cannot differentiate between the two. Then comes the fantasy part, where the film is at its most satisfying, as Catherine explores the depths of Carl's mentality.
Each of these three running narratives meet up and resolve themselves nicely and cleanly, none of them is neglected, and we are left to ponder what we have seen, and I can assure you that it does provoke thought and discussion. Some people I know hate this movie, but I love it, because it is unique, but perhaps a little too ambitious and stylishly overindulgent. Lopez gives a solid performance, one of grave seriousness, and superbly convincing on an emotional level. D'Onofrio is excellent as the creepy and troubled Carl, and Vaughn is effective as the cop trying to track down the missing girl, who even heads into Carl's mind to retrieve Catherine, an act of reckless heroism that leads to rather ghastly results. Overall, a great film, and one I would recommend.
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