Amazon.com video review:
Schizoid serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) has
been captured at last, but a neurological seizure has rendered him
comatose, 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 smorgasbord 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
