12 Monkeys (1995, R)

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.