Released: August 18, 2000
Director: Tarsem Singh
Screenplay: Mark Protosevich
Tagline: "Enter the mind of a killer"
Cast:
Jennifer Lopez as Dr. Catherine Deane
Vinent D'Onofrio as Carl Rudolph Stargher
Vince Vaughn as Special Agent Peter Novak
Jake Weber as Special Agent Gordon Ramsey
Dylan Baker as Henry West
Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Dr. Miriam Kent
A psychotherapist specializing in a controversial invasive therapy agrees to journey inside the mind of a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim. Able to access the psyche and subconscious mind as though they were physical landscapes, Dr. Catherine Deane is a former social worker turned pioneer in the field of psychotherapy. She's currently hoping to bring her current patient, a young boy trapped in a coma of his own making, out of stasis when she's called upon by the FBI to enter the mind of recently captured serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher. Stargher's obsessive and strange methods of abduction, torture, and murder have led the FBI to believe he has one victim still out there and still alive, but that time is running short. Stargher is the only person who knows where she is and his own brain disorder has left him in a coma. Catherine is their last hope.
The Cell is a visually gorgeous film that comes off a little dead in its delivery. The dream sequences are puzzling, horrifying, beautiful and extravagant ephemeral moments that would make David Lynch incredibly proud, but they can't save dry acting and obvious copycating the plot from other, more accomplished brooding serial killer horror films. Vincent D'Onofrio's dedication to the role and to his craft is admirable, but Jennifer Lopez is flat in delivery and Vince Vaughn is grating every second he's on screen (isn't he always, though?).
The story is a subpar recycling of both Silence of the Lambs and Se7en, but without the shock and nihilistic dread of either of those superior films. Scenes meant to be deeply disturbing, like the Buffalo Bill wannabe killer suspending himself over his victims via hooks and chains, come off as odd instead. In the end, Vince Vaughn finds the Catherine Martin-character through what should have been a simple check that any rookie detective would have run the instant they captured Stargher. It renders the deep dive into the psycho's subconscious an unnecessary risk, even if it was stellar to watch.
Overall there's interesting stuff happening in this curious little film, i.e. the visuals, but there's nothing that really grounds your interest in those bits where we're not being treated to a Lynchian version of a 90's music videos. There's just not enough focus, not enough chemistry, and not enough substance. You can see the moments where the movie wants to break through and become something more--the discussions about what makes a child into a monster and the blame factor we do or don't place on mental illness come to mind--but they never blossom out the way the dream world sequences do. I'd say, if you have a night where you can't quite figure out what else to watch, throw this movie on mute while you're doing a puzzle or catching up on emails or wondering why Jennifer Lopez looks like a whitewashed geisha in this movie's poster.
The Cell
5-Totally Terrifying
4-Crazy Creepy
3-Fairly Frightening
2-Slightly Scary
1-Hardly Horror
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