The Cell (2000)

Looks and sounds great, but the script doesn't make a lot of sense. MINOR SPOILER - One of the characters makes a comment that effectively says that JLo's character is irrelevant to the solution of the serial killer hunt. In which case, why are we even watching her story? Overall, a bit too silly to take seriously.

A visual treat with a strong and intriguing story, that would be the best way to describe The Cell.It's like a precursor to Inception, whereby you venture into the subjects mind to observe and report and to intervene with the person's subconscious , suggestions can be implanted into the subjects mind and questions can be answered too. Visually the film was grade A, crisp, clean focused shots dominated the film and I liked some of the scenes where layers of deep colour were framed perfectly, like during the opening segment where Catherine was in the little boy she was working with's mind, the top layer was deep blue sky, underneath was strong yellow representing sand and the dark silhouette of Catherine framed perfectly in the centre of the shot, the film has many examples such as this, making the overall presentation very artistic. Vince Vaughn was still finding his feet in Hollywood at the time, but showed some serious skill in The Cell, before he became a full time comic actor this was, and Jennifer Lopez showed that she had genuine acting talent and wasn't solely a singer..., the back up cast including the underrated Dean Norris were excellent and fleshed the film out well. Simple, easy to follow science-fiction, this is what happens when science-fiction is done right; one of the best films from the year 2000, a strange year for Hollywood, the final year before the 21st century kicked in and major changes swept across the landscape.

For a movie such as this, it's all about the imageries. The images here are very nightmarish, horrifying and creative. However it's a movie that tries to be artistic but lack true artistic elements. So the plot is about diving into the mind of a mentally disturbed culprit by using a machine that allows people to dive into the mind of a patient. It sort of reminded me of the Animus machine from Assassin's Creed. Anyways the process is to find the location of the killers latest victim. So you as an audience witnesses what is going down within the mind of a serial killer. And the demons and abusive past the killer dealt with in the past. However the drawbacks to this film is how it doesn't really delve into connecting the imagery to the story. What I mean is, you just don't get how some crazy images in this connects with why the killer is the way he is. Which in a way makes the journey lack substance and can become pretentious from time to time. However the crazy, bizarre and yet stunning imageries made this movie a somewhat worthwhile watch. Even if it lacks any real substance.6/10

Tarsem Singh's The Cell is the kind of revelatory, mind blowing, breathtaking, once in a decade kind of fantasy film that is utterly unique, truly memorable and pure artistic creation. Singh utilizes so many visual elements and ideas that you get the notion that you are truly immersed in a human being's subconscious inner realm, and not merely watching a film. It's transcendent. Jennifer Lopez, in a performance of great empathy and serious emotional depth, plays a child psychologist who uses futuristic technology to literally enter the dreams of comatose patients and attempt to heal them. When a seriously disturbed killer (the monumentally talented Vincent D'Onofrio) enters a coma before the FBI can find his latest victim, she is hired to enter his mind to find out the location. A scary setup indeed. The first plunge into his mind is set up with a dread inducing soundtrack cue, and a sudden, Topsy turvy whirlwind of surreal images, sounds and stimuli which are truly eerie and intangible. The art direction, special effects and design of the spirit realm she ventures into are just something you don't see in many films, because most people are afraid to think about that kind of raw, uninhibited subconscious content. Not Singh. He willingly explores the dark, mysterious side of the human mind and soul, with a complexity and understanding that is all to rare. For folks who find that too much surreal imagery and soul disturbing content makes them uneasy (hell, I'M one of those folks) those aspects are balanced out by the clean cut, very grounded in earth time plot line of Vaughn's team helping him out from 'earthside', a standard cops vs. killer mentality to even out the strangeness. They even have a guy from CSI playing one of the cops. Vince Vaughn feels slightly miscast as the head fed, but James Gammon, Dean Norris, Dylan Baker, Marianne Jean Baptiste, Patrick Bachau and Musetta Vander all give stellar support. If you have a strong stomach (this film gets pretty brutal in ways you can't imagine), and a wandering, artistically abstract mind for all things surreal and dreamy, definitely check this out.