*** (out of ****)
Starring Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, James Gammon, Jake Weber, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Vincent D’Onofrio
Directed by Tarsem Singh & written by Mark Protosevich
2000 R
“The Cell” is like an episode of “The Outer Limits” or “The Twilight Zone” in which the events take place in a universe like our own, except they have one technological advance we lack. In this case, the gimmick is a virtual reality suite that allows you to enter the minds of others. You and the other person get hooked up and then—presto!—you’re inside his dreams. How clever.
At the beginning of “The Cell,” Jennifer Lopez is a child psychologist using this device to enter the dreams of a little boy in a coma. By the end of the film she will be using it to climb inside the dementia of a serial killer. The serial killer is played by Vincent D’Onofrio, trying to prove he can be even crazier than he was in “Full Metal Jacket.” He’s captured not far into “The Cell,” but only because he himself has suffered an almost total mental shutdown. On the surface it might not be too bad to have the wacko reduced to a vegetable, but the overzealous FBI agent who caught him (Vince Vaughn) points out that D’Onofrio still has one victim alive in captivity who will die if they do not find her. So, logically, they hook the vegetable up to Lopez’s brain gadget and see if she can coax the location of the last victim out of him.
The events in the real world are handled with calm precision by director Tarsem Singh, but “The Cell” hits its stride inside the mind. D’Onofrio’s mind is a vast, gruesome place where Lopez, and eventually Vaughn, are able to glimpse episodes from his childhood and his first murder, as well as the deranged corridors of his imagination, where he sits as king of an empty masochistic world. D'Onofrio is often adorned with horns, capes, and nipple rings, his lair is of caverns and abandoned castles, and we glimpse images of women that are both erotic and tormented. Lopez and Vaughn snoop around this solidified subconscious, sometimes finding D’Onofrio himself, strangely sympathetic as a boy, and sometimes even as a man. But always lying in wait is the madman, who at first is saddened at being trapped within his own failed body, then delighted when, somehow, he has these two playthings to torture. The special effects, art direction, and makeup during these segments are Oscar-worthy, and I will not reveal the ghastliness, except to say that “The Cell” is rated R for a reason.
Like on “The Outer Limits,” Lopez, Vaughn, and D’Onofrio are all given sharply-drawn, if not especially deep characters to play. All three are effective in that they play their parts with reserve, knowing that the crux of the movie isn’t so much these people as the mindscape where they must play.
As much as I enjoyed the eye-popping effects within D’Onofrio’s mind, I was never convinced that every single thing I was seeing held a direct connection with his character. I’m fairly certain some of the effects, some of the creepiness, and some of his twisted world existed for its own sake, independent of the rest of the movie and present only as eye candy. Everything looks incredible, yes, but I would be hard pressed into believing that some of it isn’t there just because some FX guys thought it would “look cool.” Still, “The Cell” is an entertaining, tightly-wound thriller, and certainly one of the best-looking films of 2000.
P.S. July 16, 2003 - More than a year after having written this review, I stumble across the Journal of Religion and Film, in which reviewer John Pater connects J-Lo's journey into the killer's mind, and the killer's subsequent journey into her own, as being similar to God taking on human form in order to save humanity. Much can be made of the movie's redemptive imagery as well. For more information, click here.
Copyright 2002 Friday & Saturday Night