THE CELL

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: MTV will save cinema. In recent years video directors like David Fincher and Spike Jonze have made films that have fearlessly challenged the conservative establishment; giving Hollywood a shot in the arm it so desperately needed throughout the ‘80s and the early ‘90s. It looks like you can now add the name Tarsem Singh to the list. The Cell may not be the pure masterpiece many critics claim it to be, but it’s one hell of a good film, and like a music video it tells its story in primarily visual terms. That in itself is a big departure from the majority of verbose Hollywood product.

The Cell revolves around the efforts of a child psychologist (Jennifer Lopez) to probe the mind of a serial killer (Vincent D’Onofrio) who’s M.O. includes drowning women by remote control. When I say “probe”, I mean literally enter the mind and navigate there as within a physical landscape, interacting with both the ego and the superego in the same way that we interact with real people. What appealed to me about The Cell was its willingness to go with its concept; to take it to the inevitable (if somewhat predictable) resolution instead of falling back on even more predictable clichés. A lesser film would have had D’Onofrio’s character “possess” someone’s body and murder the supporting cast, but not The Cell.
The action takes place almost entirely in the mind and that’s what makes it so original and effective.

The visuals in The Cell are pretty impressive, but not in the usual CGI way that’s been so ridiculously overdone as of late. In fact, most of the effects here are of the standard, in-camera variety. They could have been done 40 or 50 years ago, for the most part. That’s probably why they work so well. What Singh seems to be most concerned with are images, not special effects. And these images are both beautiful and disturbing. The Cell is a triumph of art direction, mixing elements of Dali, Mapplethorpe, Nick Knight and countless other artistic sources. These disparate elements are combined to create unique and cohesive mental landscapes in which the action unfolds and give The Cell a distinctive and original visual style; more Nine Inch Nails than Matrix.

All the performances are good. Jennifer Lopez, as always, is believable and radiant at the same time. The camera really loves her. Vince Vaughn as the fucked up FBI guy, makes Fox Mulder look like a Republican; he’s never been better. And Vincent D’Onofrio is continuing to create a legacy of brilliantly quirky roles that’s bound the make him the Chris Walken of his generation. I love the way he goes from naturalism to operatic expressionism within the same character and occasionally even within the same scene. He’s a great and surprisingly sympathetic villain. That’s another thing I really liked about The Cell, it explained some of the motivation for D’Onofrio’s insanity without making excuses for him. You understand how he became such a monster, but he’s still a monster none-the-less. There are no easy answers here; no simple Hollywood solutions. Even a romantic spark between Lopez and Vaught is left unfulfilled for a change. Good. The FBI plotline is a bit of a bore in its homage to Silence Of The Lambs, but that’s a small quibble. Overall The Cell works. I don’t know if it will be a successful film financially. The Cell is more disturbing than scary. But it is a highly effective and visually daring picture that deserves to become a classic of the genre. What genre, though, I’m not sure.