Subject: Review: Dark City (1998)

From: "Jerry Bosch" <[email-masked]>
Date: 21 Mar 1998 05:58:21 GMT

DARK CITY

Bad, bad, bad. Am I talking to a dog? In a word, yes.

Amnesia can be a curse or a blessing. To a guy who can't even remember who
he is not, amnesia would be a bad thing, but to a movie audience, at times,
it can be an unforgettable benediction.

Dark City wants to be a serious movie. It wants to probe the mysteries of
the soul by addressing the issues of identity and alternate realities
through a novel and not uninteresting variation on the amnesia theme. But a
cinematic style that aims for Kafkaesque obscurity and ambiguity succeeds
only in projecting a comic book atmosphere due to the flatness of the
characters and the sharp demarcation of the plot line. You know that the
characters are confused, but you don't feel their pain. And should you feel
confused about their confusion, not to worry, everything is explained via
dialogue or voice over. But alas, the mysteries of the soul can not be
plumbed in the absence of pathos. So we end up with a moderately
interesting premise that services the plot line without probing the thesis
to any substantial depth.

It seems that Alex Proyas (director) was unable to decide between the
fractured logic of a dream-like state and his desire to clarify the
situation. What the characters fail to show us they tell us in so many
words; which seems like a commitment to logic, yet the premise is rife with
logical inconsistencies. The busy metropolis has millions of inhabitants,
yet the good bad doctor in charge of human experimentation shows no signs
of having a staff. He seems to operate by himself in motel rooms. And why
should the hero's brain mimic the powers of the Strangers, when he was not
exposed to the substance of their minds? And why were those powers not used
in a consistent manner?

The water connection could have been used as a powerful symbol of the soul
which, like water, will slip between your fingers when you try to grab it.
However water does not play a major role in the defeat of the aliens. The
victory weapon is not any element of the human soul, but elements
indigenous to the aliens themselves, which is not particularly flattering
to the human spirit. The final psycho-kinetic duel is a "been there; done
that" experience which contributes nothing to the premise, and certainly
does nothing to support a dualistic argument about the mind and the soul. 

Regarding William Hurt, the bank that holds his mortgage is glad to see him
working again. Keifer Sutherland limps an affects a halting speech in the
finest tradition of high school melodrama. Rufus Sewell and Jennifer
Connelly turn in workman-like performances.

Dark City will be OK to watch at home when it comes to Blockbuster. Just
make sure to gather many friends in order to justify the expense. As food
for the mind, it is little more than psy-fi pizza.

I have been known to doze off in Titanic and other worthy epics. This often
happens when my allergic conjunctivitis meets a darkened room. In Dark City
the house was dark, the screen was dark, the action was slow and my
conjunctivae were eyelash deep in memories of pollen. Perhaps I missed the
good parts. It would be nice if there were such a thing as conjunctival
amnesia.

2 ¼ out of 5 stars. (The ¼ star is a concession to good intentions.)
Jerry