Cell, The (DVD)
Enter the mind of a killer... Jennifer Lopez stars as
psychotherapist Catherine Deane, who has developed a technique to
enter the unconscious mind of another. Now, in a desperate
attempt to save an innocent life, she enters the mind of a
serial killer to find his latest victim--a young woman
whom the maniac has kipped and imprisoned in a torture
chamber. But once inside the killer's subconscious, a terrifying
maze of horror, can Deane return with her life--and her
mind--intact?
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Schizoid serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) has been
captured at last, but a neurological seizure has rendered him
, and FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughan) has no way to
determine the location of Stargher's latest and still-living
victim. To probe the secrets contained in Stargher's traumatized
psyche, the FBI recruits psychologist Catherine Deane (Jennifer
Lopez), who has mastered a new technology that allows her to
enter the mind of another person. What she finds in Stargher's
head is a theater of the grotesque, which, as envisioned by
first-time director Tarsem Singh, is a smorbord of the surreal
that borrows liberally from the Brothers Quay, Czech animator Jan
Svankmajer, Hieronymous Bosch, Salvador Dali, and a surplus of
other cannibalized sources.
This provides one of the wildest, weirdest visual feasts ever
committed to film, and The Cell earns a place among such movie
mind-trips as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Altered States, What Dreams
May Come, and Un Chien Andalou. Is this a good thing? Sure, if
all you want is freakazoid eye-candy. If you're looking for
emotional depth, substantial plot, and artistic coherence, The
Cell is sure to disappoint. The pop-psychology pablum of Mark
Protosevich's screenplay would be laughable if it weren't given
such somber significance, and Singh's exploitative use of
sadomasochistic imagery is repugnant (this movie makes Seven look
tame), so you're better off marveling at the nightmare visions
that are realized with astonishing potency. The Cell is too
shallow to stay in your head for long, but while it's there, it's
one hell of a show. --Jeff Shannon
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Additional Features
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Sounding more like a standup comedian than a serious filmmaker in
his feature-length commentary, director Tarsem Singh (a veteran
of glossy TV commercials and music videos) clearly reveals that
dazzling visuals took priority over plot and character in The
Cell. This emphasis is echoed throughout the DVD's bonus
features, especially in a featurette "tribute" to Singh by
primary members of his creative team. While the deleted scenes
are interesting, they add nothing to the finished film, so it's
easy to see why they were deleted. Detailed examination of the
film's special effects offers a first-rate primer on the state of
the art of digital imagery. To lend an air of scientific
credibility to the film's basic premise, a brain and "empathy
test" are included, inviting viewers to take a multiple-choice
quiz to determine their level of empathy and compassion toward
other human beings. (The lower your score, presumably, the more
you have in common with serial killers.) --Jeff Shannon
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