The
movie this time – I was holding off on it until the first season of the show
was finished airing. Both are different
enough that I’m not sure how seeing the movie first would’ve impacted my
opinion of the series. Both different,
but both excellent. I can definitely see
why movie fans were equal parts excited and anxious when the show was initially
announced; some big shoes to fill here.
As in
the series, the film follows a time traveler from a plague-ravaged future in
which mankind has been all but wiped out.
James Cole is sent back to investigate the origins of the virus and
return to the future with a pure specimen that can be used to cultivate a cure
and improve the lives of the survivors.
Unfortunately, people in pre-apocalyptic societies don’t believe you
when you rage about doomsday viruses that will bring civilization to its knees,
and Cole winds up in an institution that gives One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest a run for its money. His only potential allies on the inside are
the sympathetic Dr. Kathryn Railly (a psychiatrist in this version, not a
virologist) and the twitchy Jeffrey Goines, fellow patient and the son of a
prominent scientist (a male in this version – Brad Pitt and Emily Hampshire’s
performances are very different and equally awesome.)
A movie
obviously isn’t going to be as involved as an ongoing genre show, especially a
time-travel show – the pilot of the series basically covers the main thrust of
the movie, though it obviously doesn’t wrap things up and features the mental
illness angle a lot less prominently.
And that’s perfectly fine. The
film offers up a tight, engrossing story rooted in the strong but cautious bond
between Cole and Kathryn. She comes
slowly into the realization that he’s telling the truth, while the wonder of a
pre-virus world starts to pull his attention away from his mission.
Directed
by Terry Gilliam, the visual style is arresting, gritty, and kind of
trippy. The grimy, cobbled-together
future tech reminds me of a sci-fi companion to The City of Lost Children, and Gilliam obviously has tons of fun
filming the disorienting institution scenes.
Much like Brad Pitt and Emily Hampshire’s competing Jeffrey and
Jennifer, the look and feel of the film is distinctive in its own way. I can definitely see little details and
visual nods to the movie within the show, but overall, they really do feel like
separate entities, which is good.
Although I think I can prefer the show for its stronger collection of
female characters and the more expansive direction its medium allows it to
take, the film is an intriguing, inventive piece of cinema.
Bruce
Willis plays Cole, once again very different from Aaron Stanford (so much so
that I’m impressed the show cast Stanford.)
I like that he’s blunt and kind of intimidating, but at the same time, he’s
enchanted by the ‘90s in an endearing, almost innocent way. Kathryn is well played by Madeleine Stowe, I
already mentioned Brad Pitt’s stellar, unpredictable performance, and
Christopher Plummer has a small but important role.
Warnings
Disturbing
elements, sexual references, violence, language, and drug references.
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