THE CELL
Rated R - Running Time: 1:47 - Released 8/18/00
One hardly knows where to begin in describing The Cell,
the freshman feature film effort from both writer Mark Protosevich
and director Tarsem Singh. Everyone knows it's freaky and surrealistic,
and I love an acid trip as much as the next guy, but I was impressed
with it from a technical standpoint as well. Singh's use of color
and contrast provides a stunning visual impact which is noticeable
from the very beginning, and this is subtly accented by the use
of different film stocks for the "real" and "surreal"
portions of the movie. The costume and visual effects people are
definitely going for the awards here, as well as makeup and art
direction, and Paul Laufer's cinematography is richly detailed.
Story wise, The Cell is quite effectively disturbing.
Protosevich's script borrows heavily from The Silence Of The
Lambs, with Singh adding the dreamlike imagery of Altered
States. The plot centers around a new "neurological synaptic
transfer system," a process which allows one person to enter
the mind of another — kind of like the Vulcan mind meld —
through a never-clearly-explained combination of drugs and electronics.
And it is the way psychotherapist Catharine Deane (Jennifer Lopez)
gets in the head of comatose serial killer and former child abuse
victim Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio).
The process, developed by Dr. Miriam Kent (Marianne Jean-Baptiste)
and Henry West (Dylan Baker), is still in the experimental stages
when it becomes needed to help solve a serial murder case. Just
before the FBI, led by agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn), breaks
into his home, Stargher goes into a coma. This helps greatly in
the process of apprehending him, but there's only one problem:
his latest victim (Catherine Sutherland) is still imprisoned somewhere
in his secret underground fully automated water-tight glass cell
which will, without any input necessary from its comatose designer,
automatically begin filling with water and eventually drown her
while videotaping the spectacle from several different angles.
(I saw one of those at a yard sale once.) This is so that after
she's dead, Stargher can dress her up as a doll and act out his
perverse fantasies as usual. Peter's idea is to allow Catharine
to take a trip into the dark recesses of Stargher's crippled mind
and ascertain the whereabouts of the girl so that she may be saved.
What no one expects is for her to get lost in there.
There is no use attempting to describe what is found on Catharine's
journey; the imagery defies words and the psychology defies explanation.
But it is a memorable showcase of cinematic ingenuity, at once
beautiful and horrific, with D'Onofrio and Lopez playing several
different versions of their characters. Howard Shore's original
music is also memorable, utilizing stark chords to emphasize the
unreal quality of the settings. There is no doubt that the effects
are the star of this picture (the "real-world"segments
at times become quite tedious in comparison to the "dream
sequences"), but D'Onofrio proves that his performance as
the bug-wearing-an-Edgar-suit in Men In Black was no fluke.
Lopez and Vaughn are adequate in much less challenging roles.
Some may categorize The Cell as another visual effects showcase with an anemic plot, but I daresay it has enough substance to make a splash, thanks in no small part to its well-timed delivery during the August dregs. Singh and Protosevich have acquitted themselves ably in their joint debut, and D'Onofrio has added an impressive credit to his resumé. ****½