Subject: Review: Minority Report (2002)

From: Karina Montgomery <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 18:26:16 -0000

Minority Report

Full Price Feature

What a great way to step back into the film criticism biz than with a 
great flick like Minority Report.  Marketed like a latter day Blade 
Runner (which, in a sense it is) and banking its opening weekend 
numbers on the one-two punch value of Tom "Legend" Cruise and Stephen 
"1941" Spielberg, you might think perhaps you shouldn't get your 
expectations up, because, really, how could can it be?  And hasn't 
Fox done enough lately to disappoint us?

Oh my Constant Readers, how pleased I am to say that this movie meets 
expectations very nicely.  My immediate reaction was "Looks like 
A.I., feels like a Kubrick," which is not meant to alienate 
detractors of the former.  Visually, Janusz Kaminski and Spielberg 
have taken a lot of lessons learned from creating the visuals of 
A.I., and improved upon them.  There is the element of the impossible 
cities of Fifth Element, the impersonal mechanization of Total 
Recall, and the dreamy technological fantasy of A.I.  I even forgive 
Tom for making Vanilla Sky.

Based on the short story by Philip K. Dick, a famous meth-fueled 
author, the story deals with themes on what is reality and a sort of 
behavior model of the certainty principle.  Even if compaing the 
action to this film to the whole notion of predicting movement is a 
quantum leap (ha ha) from the actual scientific principle, it neatly 
summarizes with just its dictionary definition the two main issues in 
this film.  And, much to the wonderful screenwriters' credit, it does 
it in an incredibly accessible way.

Many drug users struggle with the question of what is reality and how 
can I be sure what seems obvious is going to happen will happen with 
100% certainty, but few struggle with such aplomb as Dick.  To be 
fair, his stories play better when filtered through the typewriters 
of the sane; in this case, the laudable Scott Frank and Jon Cohen. 
Then of course, there's the Spielberg Principle.

In many ways, this is not a typical Spielberg film; no music swelling 
over reaction shots, dangling the audience and prepping them for the 
real show, but the film still benefits from his extraordinary gift 
for storytelling and retaining the human component in an enormous 
story.  However, it also benefits from his hours poring through 
Stanley Kubrick's personal effects because the darkness is not 
alleviated by humor; the human errors are not forgiven.  He has 
definitely gotten himself a bigger boat.

The design is wonderful.  Set in 2054, it's close enough to our 
reality (as close as 1950 is in the other direction) but far enough 
afield to make it still wonderful and high tech and frightening.  One 
lesson Steve has learned that other directors (cough Lucas) have not 
is the best scenes are still the analog ones.  A very expensive scene 
in a car factory, a tight, personal scene with only two men in it, a 
scene in a mall - it's better because it is real.  In these ways it 
is a Spielberg film, true, but it's very mature and very very 
exciting.

I could go on and on about the superb supporting cast, but I'll just 
name my favorites:  Tim Blake Nelson, Lois Smith, and Peter Stormare. 
I admit, I had trouble with Colin Farrell - he's the federal guy 
coming in and causing trouble, and he was alternately too milquetoast 
and too smarmy for me to get a bead on him; by the end I dug the 
casting completely.

It's cool, but it's also good, in the way Oscar winning movies are 
good.  Go see it.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery.  Please feel free to forward
but just credit the reviewer in the text.  Thanks. 
[email-masked]
Check out previous reviews at:
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