The Cell (2000)

THE CELL
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A serial killer (Vincent D'Onofrio, "Men in Black") who likes to watch his victims drown in his special chamber falls into a coma while his latest capture still awaits her fate. Psychotherapist Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez, "Out of Sight") attempts to enter his twisted mind in a race against time to discover the location of "The Cell."

LAURA:

"The Cell" is the feature directing debut of noted visualist Tarsem Singh, whose commercials and videos are held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Is "The Cell" art? It's magnificent to look at, but at the half way mark the visuals get so far out they cease to serve the sketchy story.

Mark Protosevich's script is standard stuff which takes one concept already explored in "Manhunter" (the original Hannibal Lecter movie) a bit further - instead of a serial killer hunter thinking like his prey, here people can hook themselves up to a Neurological Cartography and Synaptic Transfer System, which, along with psychotropic drugs, allow them to truly enter the mind of another (or allow another into their mind). Otherwise, the story is simply plotted like "The Bone Collector," where several people try to put together clues in order to save a victim within a designated time period.

We're introduced to the device (where people hang suspended in musculature suits looking like the patients in "Coma"), as Catherine attempts to interact with Edward, the seven year old son of a billionaire (Patrick Bauchau, "Twin Falls Idaho") who's threatening her boss, Dr. Miriam Kent (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, "Secrets and Lies"), with pulling funding if he doesn't get tangible results soon. Unbeknownst to us, we're already in Edward's mind as the title credits roll - a land of red sand dunes against a brilliant blue sky where Catherine, in a white feathered gown, rides to him on a black horse. The African location cinematography by longtime Tarsem collaborater Paul Laufer is stunning.

Then we meet Carl Stargher as he drives his black pickup out to two lone silos in the middle of a wheat field. Beneath the ground is his cell, a small glass chamber (not unlike Lecter's cell in "The Silence of the Lambs") where a woman floats, dead. Carl takes the body home where he 'processes' it before enacting his ritual, which involves suspending his body from the ceiling by the steel rings pierced through his back (shades of "Hellraiser").

FBI agents Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn, "Psycho") and Gordon Ramsey (Jake Weber, "U-571") track down Stargher via clues left with his last victim (albino dog hairs and vehicle identification) and raid his home, only to find the schizophrenic killer has lapsed into a coma on his kitchen floor. A medical specialist hooks them up with the dream team at the Campbell Center and Catherine agrees to attempt to make contact.

"The Cell" is creepily suspenseful right through Catherine's first mind trip, where she makes contact with a young Carl (Jake Thomas) in subterranean murk with Lynch-like horror tableaus of vibrating dogs, bloody bathtubs, garishly posed bleached victims and a horse which gets cross-sectioned before her eyes. A second trip also features some creeps, but the script's weak stab at serial killer profiling begins to strain (Carl was an abused child, but what's up with his white fixation?). When Vince Vaughn joins the fun to 'save' a non-responding Catherine, logic is thrown to the wind and things begin to get ludicrous - just why would a serial killer's mind be full of Oriental art, harem imagery and sea creatures (the water imagery from his past involves a river, not the ocean). Things go further downhill when Novak takes off from Stargher's mind on a sudden hunch and Catherine rashly goes back to save Carl's inner child.

Technically, "The Cell" is of the highest order. Production design by Tom Foden ("Psycho"), art direction by Guy Dyas and Michael Manson, costume design by Eiko Ishioka and makeup by Heather Plott and James Ryder show collaberation of imaginative artisans. Original music by Howard Shore ("The Game") features discordant horns with an Arabic tinge.

If "The Cell" was stripped of all pretensions of storytelling it could play as an intriguing experimental art film (the sectioned horse was ripped off from artist Damien Hurst's cow, after all). It hasn't, though, and the mind-bending visuals only take us so far. It would be interesting to see Tarsem collaborate with Lynch, a man with a little method behind his madness.

C

ROBIN:

Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is a talented child psychotherapist who is a member of a research team that has developed an experimental technique for entering the inner depths of the mind of a patient. A psycho killer is captured by the FBI, but only after the madman kidnapped a new victim and has her stashed away. The killer falls into a coma and FBI agent Pete Novak (Vince Vaughn) seeks Catherine's help to delve into the killer's mind to save the girl before time runs out in "The Cell."

Award winning music video director Tarsem Singh makes his feature film debut with a psychological, science fiction drama that, quite literally, digs into the human mind. Working with a script from another newcomer, Mark Protosevich, the director utilizes high-powered visuals, special F/X and flashy set design and costume to propel us into the psyche of a serial killer. The killer, Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) has the modus operandi of sealing his victims in a glassed-in room, slowly flooding it while videotaping the poor woman's panic, suffering and, finally, death.

The FBI, under the leadership of Novak, has been dogging the trail of Carl for some time, collecting data and, slowly, closing in on the killer. Carl made a boo-boo at his last killing and left some dog hairs, from his albino German Shepherd Valentine, at the scene where the body was found. Accurate forensics and quick legwork allows Pete and his team to get the drop on Stargher and arrest him - but not before he drops into a coma. They learn of yet another kidnapping and, knowing Carl's MO, realize that the latest victim has less than 40 hours to live with no way to find out where Carl's lair is located.

Enter Catherine and here research team who have developed a "neurological synaptic transfer system" that allows a therapist to get into a patient's head and, in theory, help cure that patient of whatever mental demons are tormenting them. With so little time left to save Carl's latest victim, Catherine decides to forego protocol and try the transfer system to get into Carl's mind and find out where the girl, Julia Hickson (Tara Subkoff), is hidden. The psychotherapist, necessarily, casts caution to the wind and enters the mind of the murderer and is able to begin to bring out the troubled boy inside Carl's head, but not the location of Julia.

Pete Novak, who has studied the killer and his methods from the very first murder, thinks he can get the required info and both he and Catherine enter Carl's sick mind. Revelations take place and Pete, with his newfound insight, knows he can save the day. Catherine, the penultimate psychotherapist, throws personal safety aside in order to save the scared, troubled little boy in the near demonic Carl's megalomaniac mind.

Performances, as we see time and again with F/X extravaganzas, take a back seat to the visual effects and the eye candy that the technicians on the film have crafted so nicely. Jennifer Lopez is OK in her acting as the dedicated Catherine, but stands out more when impressively costumed and coifed in her journey into the killer's head. She's more object than character as things play out and the actress's striking looks and physique help center the visual tone of the elaborate production.

Vince Vaughn and Vincent D'Onofrio are interchangeable actors who could have been selected for their respective roles by a draw of straws. As such, neither gives much character to their roles as the dedicated cop and the sick psycho loony. Supporting cast is uniformly wasted. Dylan Baker ("Happiness") and Marianne Jean-Baptiste ("Secrets & Lies"), as research scientists Henry West and Dr. Miriam Kent, are left the task of pushing buttons and watching the inert, futuristically clad bodies of their patients (the action is in the mind) without much involvement. At one point, it looked like the story was going to take a twist and Jean-Baptiste was going to get an expanded role. She didn't and the writer went for the routine hero-heroine story. Jake Webber ("U-571") playing Pete's partner, FBI agent Gordon Ramsey, doesn't fare much better as his character is left in the wake of Novak's single-handed bravery.

Of course, if you've seen the trailer, you can readily see that the special F/X and surreal quality of the film are the draw to get you to see it. Despite the flaws and inconsistencies in the story and the lack of depth to the principle characters, the visual acuity of "The Cell" is enough to recommend it. It is reminiscent of "Coma" and is the first film to delve so deeply into the human mind since Ken Russell's 1980 film, "Altered States." The film is stunning to look at and tech credits are superior. Photography, by Paul Laufer ("Frankie Starlight"), is slick, sometimes beautiful, and is a major credit to the movie. Production design, by Tom Foden (Gus Van Sant's "Psycho"), costuming, at different times by April Napier ("Your Friends and Neighbors") and Eiko Ishioka (Academy Award for "Bram Stoker's Dracula"), and make-up, by two-time Academy Award winner Michele Burke ("Quest for Fire," "Bram Stoker's Dracula"), all work to make this a superior looking flick. The F/X team, led by Clay Pinney ("Independence Day") and Kevin Tod Haug ("The Game"), are excellent.

One point the script makes in the midst of all the psycho babble that permeates the film is that the FBI solves crimes and saves people by their understanding of forensics and their doggedness in following clues, even insignificant ones, to get their man. The story does not downplay the hard work of America's crime-fighters in doing their difficult jobs.

There is more to a movie than just F/X and flash and good looks. A carefully constructed story and three-dimensional characters are needed, too, to make a film great. "The Cell" makes it part way and I give it a B-.

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laura@reelingreviews.com
robin@reelingreviews.com