The Cell (2000)

The Long Review:

One word can aptly describe The Cell. Whoa (Keanu Reeves-style). This movie takes you on an unforgettable trip…and when it's over, you're not quite sure if you're back from the intense journey. Jennifer Lopez stars as a psychotherapist named Catherine Deane whose specialty is counseling the most difficult patients of all: comatose ones. How does she do it? Through a virtual reality gadget that allows her to enter the minds of her patients. While there, she gets to talk them and do the shrink thing. Things get interesting when a notorious serial killer, Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) whose idea of a good time is drowning women in an automated tank and turning them into dolls, falls into a permanent coma just after he had taken an 8th victim. Guess who gets to enter his mind and try to find out where the latest Barbie is hidden?

The Cell is a movie jam-packed with vivid imagery, awesome special effects, and disturbing scenes. It's one big mind trip. Director Tarsem Singh does one hell of a job capturing and portraying the fantastic journey into another person's mind. We wonder if he was on something all throughout the filming of the movie?! Geez! How do you come up with stuff like that? Just as Catherine gets sucked into the warped mind of Stagher the killer, you get sucked into the intensity of the film. You are both mesmerized and disgusted by what you see and experience. It's a real conflict when you find yourself both hating and feeling for a heartless bastard.

Amid the wincing and squirming, you forget that time is ticking by. The movie is that enthralling and fast-paced. You get to see Jennifer Lopez go from sympathetic shrink to desert goddess, from Blessed Mother to a leather-clad kick-ass martial arts babe. She must have spent a helluva lotta time in make-up and costume! Sheesh! As for her acting, though, it's nothing spectacular. While watching The Cell, you'll feel like you're just watching an extended version of one of Jennifer Lopez' videos, where she does the seductive face, the serene look, the sexy moves…all right on cue.

The supporting cast did a better job than Jennifer: Vincent D'Onofrio plays the role of evil, evil, bad, bad, man with an evil, evil, bad, bad childhood to a tee, it's creepy. And Vince Vaughn as Novak, ex-lawyer turned super cop is the only one who sorta brings humour into this otherwise very disturbing film…unless, of course, you find the sight of bleached-out corpses of women funny. In that case, um…yeah.

The Cell isn't just an eye-opener. It's also a workout on emotions. One minute, you're completely and thoroughly disgusted by human doll collector Stargher, the next, you just wanna give him a big hug. And victim #8!! Man, was she annoying when she was in that tank. A big part of you wants the FBI to hurry up and save her, of course, but that little part of you that's ticked off by her constant whining and hysterical crying wants her to well, shut up. Just shut up, dammit!! It's nitty-gritty stuff like this that makes The Cell a quality movie.

Overall, The Cell is a great movie that offers you everything you could possibly want in a movie: eye candy, a special effects feast, an intense plot, and an emotional catharsis. Now that's deep.

Ebert's satisfaction:

ebert says	moviegurus say
I think it's one of the best films of the year.	We're not gonna go as far as saying it's one of the best films of the year. But it's definitely one of the trippiest…if not the trippiest.
Mark Protosevich's screenplay is ingenious in the way it intercuts three kinds of stories.	True, true. There's so much going on but somehow, they all come together in the end. It's like watching 3 movies in one. What a deal!!
A movie like this is more concerned with suggesting weirdness than explaining it.	We agree. You see some stuff and you don't know how the hell it happened or got there. But you let it go 'cuz what you see is just do darn incredible. Whoa.
The Cell is one of those movies where you have a lot of doubts at the beginning, and then one by one they're answered, and you find yourself seduced by the style and story.	Yup, it's like being a given a puzzle to solve and collecting the pieces along the way. And all throughout, you're working through a big haze 'cuz you find yourself tripping out. Again, whoa.