The Cell Review
By Joe Lozito
Share and Share a Psyche
The pitch meeting for the new psychological thriller "The Cell" could have gone very badly. "Picture 'Dreamscape' meets 'Silence of the Lambs'," they might have said. Thankfully in the hands of MTV veteran director Tarsem (just the one name), what could have been a by-the-numbers serial killer mystery becomes a beautiful tour de force of film magic.
The borderline-ridiculous plot revolves around child psychologist Catherine Deanne (Jennifer Lopez) who works with a new experimental device which allows her to enter the mind of her comatose patients - all the while suspended in mid-air wearing suits seemingly made of enormous Twizzlers. Coincidentally, as Catherine is mastering the ins-and-outs of this gadget, FBI Agent Novak (Vince Vaughn) stumbles upon the whereabouts of a serial killer (Vincent D'Onofrio) who slips into a coma before divulging the location of his latest abductee.
It seems the Catherine is Agent Novak's only hope to finding the missing victim. Or something like that. In a film with homages to everything including "The Matrix", it is only fitting that the plot is really secondary. The real fun of watching "The Cell" is seeing what visual stunner it will come up with next. Every effect in the book is thrown on screen, but not overwhelmingly so. The sequences inside the mind of the killer are treated with the reverence of a piece of art - and, like Tarsem's groundbreaking REM video "Losing My Religion", many of the set pieces in the film are borrowed from artwork.
The problem with "The Cell" is that it is only too happy to indulge its artistic license without provocation. For example, why is Ms. Lopez dressed in tank tops inside the mind of the killer? The actual story should have been much smarter. Instead, the FBI detective work could have been conducted without the help of the psychological mumbo jumbo.
Ms. Lopez tries on a newer, quieter voice which suits this role fine. But she is given little room to explore her character while reacting to the many atrocities she stumbles upon. Mr. D'Onofrio reaches back into his "Full Metal Jacket" bag of tricks to create a man who can easily be believed to be insane. The real relief in the film should have come from Mr. Vaughn's Agent Novak. Unfortunately, the actor is given so few moments to indulge himself. The best may be, when first confronted with the allegorical mind of the killer, he mutters "oh-kay". Agent Novak should have been the voice of the audience. More moments like that could have added a lot to the experience.
During a summer of hundred-foot waves, Roman Gladiators duking it out in the Coliseum, and invisible men, it is pretty clear that special effects can do just about anything on screen. It's about time for a story which supports that magic that these effects wizards can generate. "The Cell" comes close. But watching this film is akin to doing laundry on a tropical island. The outcome may be mundane, but the journey is wondrous.
