The Cell
USA/Germany 2000
Reviewed by Ken Hollings
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
California, the present. Catherine Deane is a psychotherapist employed by the Campbell Center to experiment with a new treatment that permits her to enter the minds of catatonic patients. The technique, involving drugs and an advanced cybernetic bodysuit, is being used on a comatose boy who fails to show any signs of recovery. Meanwhile psychotic serial killer Carl Stargher suffers an irreversible neural breakdown following his arrest by the FBI and falls into a coma.
With Stargher's last female victim still imprisoned in his secret cell, which is slowly filling with water, the FBI ask Deane to search Stargher's mind for information about the girl's whereabouts. However, when Deane becomes trapped within Stargher's sadistic inner fantasies, believing them to be real, FBI agent Peter Novak enters the killer's mind to rescue her. Novak also uncovers a clue to the cell's location, and while he rushes to free the trapped girl, Deane invites Stargher into her own mind, where she overcomes his murderous nature, allowing him to die in peace. Equipped with this new therapeutic method of bringing subjects into her own consciousness, Deane returns to treating her young patient.
Review
The latest sign of Hollywood's unconsummated digital affair with virtual reality, Tarsem Singh's directorial debut occupies the hinterland between the deep sensory immersion experiments of the 90s and a 60s LSD head trip. "According to the FBI," agent Novak remarks to his travelling companion, psychotherapist Deane, after his journey through the inner world of a comatose serial killer, "you put me through a drug-fuelled mind-bender". There's little evidence to say he's wrong. The film vibrates with references to psychedelic mental overload, from Howard Shore's resonant score featuring the Master Musicians of Jajouka and dissonant orchestral references to Ligeti and the Beatles' 'A Day in the Life' to the similarity between the vertiginous hallucinatory lightshow that greets Novak's entry into killer Stargher's consciousness and that experienced by astronaut Bowman at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
The Cell establishes an intriguing correlation between Deane's pad and the serial killer's workshop; the ingenious paraphernalia assembled by Stargher for his sexualised murders finds a direct counterpart in the lush contents of Deane's apartment, where she is shown sitting at her iMac smoking a joint, listening to dub reggae. This attention to detail is typical of Tarsem (he tends to be known only by his first name): a prize-winning director of television commercials and music videos, he loads the screen with a dizzying display of gimcracks and references to such eclectic cultural artefacts as Piranesi's Carceri engravings, Oscar Schlemmer's Bauhaus costume designs and Damien Hirst's artworks. There's plenty here to keep the eye busy, but this kind of visual chewing-gum can't completely divert attention from the fact that Mark Protosevich's patchy script - which at times resembles The Silence of the Lambs rewritten by Carlos Castaneda - doesn't have much else going for it. With little room for either narrative detail or character development, Tarsem's exploration of a deranged mind soon loses momentum. By the time Deane gets in touch with Stargher's inner child, still tortured by memories of his abusive father, the dense fetishism of the original imagery has given way to camp metaphysical banalities and sketchy plot resolutions.
There's also something vaguely trite about characters having to remind each other of what is real and what is fantasy in a film where the FBI can assemble scores of heavily armed police at a moment's notice and on the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence. However, Tarsem's consummate ability to create small glossy fantasies out of inanimate consumer durables provides The Cell with its greatest and most hallucinatory irony. The material world that exists outside the main protagonists' minds has been captured with such close and loving attention to surface detail that every car, helicopter, building facade and interior threaten to take on a life of their own and overwhelm the poorly defined humans that move among them. Beyond computer-generated space, hallucinogenic drugs and violently aberrant psychologies, it seems that television commercials still constitute the ultimate virtual reality.
Credits
- Director
- Tarsem Singh
- Producers
- Julio Caro
- Eric Mcleod
- Screenplay
- Mark Protosevich
- Director of Photography
- Paul Laufer
- Editors
- Paul Rubell
- Robert Duffy
- Production Designer
- Tom Foden
- Music/Music Conductor/
Orchestrations - Howard Shore
- ©Katira Production GmbH & Co. KG
- Production Companies
- New Line Cinema presents a Caro-McLeod/Radical Media production in association with Katira Productions GmbH & Co. KG/New Line Production Inc.
- Executive Producers
- Donna Langley
- Carolyn Manetti
- Co-producers
- Mark Protosevich
- Stephen J. Ross
- Associate Producer
- Nico Soultanakis
- Production Executive
- Erik Holmberg
- Production Supervisors
- Katherine E. Beyda
- London:
- Tommy Turtle
- Namibia:
- Linzi Thomas
- Production Controller
- Paul Prokop
- Production Co-ordinators
- Gabrielle Wallack
- Supervising:
- Emily Glatter
- London:
- Nancy Hallam
- Namibia:
- Beth Kolver
- Unit Production Manager
- Eric McLeod
- Location Managers
- Scott Alan Logan
- Namibia:
- Rick Matthews
- Post-production
- Executive in Charge of:
- Jody Levin
- Supervisor:
- Sara Romilly
- Assistant Directors
- Michael Amundson
- Frederic Roth
- David Ascher
- Bradley Morris
- Visual Effects 2nd Unit Photography:
- Greg Goldstone
- Fernando Castroman
- Script Supervisors
- Judi Townsend
- Visual Effects 2nd Unit Photography:
- Randi Feldman
- Casting
- Ronna Kress
- ADR Voice:
- L.A. MadDogs
- Direct of Photography
- Visual Effects 2nd Unit Photography:
- David Drzewiecki
- Camera Operators
- Tony Gaudioz
- Aerial:
- David Nowell
- Motion Control Operator
- Visual Effects 2nd Unit Photography:
- David Hardberger
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- Kevin Tod Haug
- Executive in Charge of Visual Effects
- Lauren Ritchie
- Visual Effects Supervision Co-ordinator
- Leslie McMinn
- 2nd Entry/Catherine's World- & Catmibia
- Toybox
- Edward's World/1st Entry
- BUF
- Real World/3rd Entry
- Amalgamated Pixels
- Pre-visualization, Catherine's World Snow Development
- Pixel Liberation Front
- Additional Visual Effects
- Blackbox Digital
- Medical Monitor Design and Graphics
- Milkshake Media
- Katherine Jones
- Brad Phillips
- Jann Baskett
- Visual Effects Plate Producer
- Visual Effects 2nd Unit Photography:
- JoAnn Knox
- Special Effects
- Supervisor:
- Clay Pinney
- 1st Unit Supervisor:
- John Baker
- Effects Shop Supervisor:
- Bill Harrison
- Effects Technicians:
- Tony Centonze
- Dave Wood
- Josh Pinney
- Al Marangoni
- Jim Henry
- Graphic Designer
- Edwin Roses
- Novak's Ride Computer Animation
- Image Savant
- Playback Animation
- Blackbox Digital
- Supervising Art Director
- Geoff Hubbard
- Art Director
- Michael Manson
- Set Designers
- Dean Wolcott
- Joshua Lusby
- Luke Freeborn
- Set Decorator
- Tessa Posnansky
- Textile Designer/Artist
- Francine Le Coultre
- Illustrators
- Wil Rees
- Patrik Janicke
- Mariano Dias
- Storyboard Artist
- Trevor Goring
- Costume Designers
- Eiko Ishioka
- April Napier
- Costume Supervisor
- Linda Matthews
- Make-up/Specialty Make-up Design/Supervision/ Application
- Michèle Burke
- Make-up
- Key Artist:
- Edouard Henriques
- Artist:
- Camille Calvet
- Special Make-up Effects Prosthetics Fabrication
- K.N.B. EFX Group Inc
- Hair
- Department Supervisor:
- Susan Germaine
- Key Stylist:
- Candace Neal
- Stylist:
- Judy Crown
- Main Titles
- Imaginary Forces
- Main Title Sequence/
Digital Film and Opticals - Toybox
- Digital Film Supervisor:
- Drake Conrad
- Digital Film Co-ordinator:
- Chad Malbon
- Digital Film Technicians:
- Ammon Riley
- Andy Robinson
- Opticals
- Pacific Title
- Music Performed by
- The London Philharmonic Orchestra
- with
- Bachir Attar
- The Master Musicians of Jajouka
- also featuring
- Sarangi:
- Chandru
- Ney Flute:
- Jan Hendrickse
- Monochord:
- Sonia Slany
- 1st Percussion:
- Paul Clarvis
- Executive in Charge of Music
- Toby Emmerich
- Music Executive
- Dana Sano
- Music Co-ordinator
- Bob Bowen
- Music Editor
- Suzana Peric
- Programmer
- Robert Cotnoir
- Recording Engineer
- Simon Rhodes
- Auricle Operator
- Chris Cozens
- Soundtrack
- "O sciore cchiu Felice" -Alma Me Gretta; "You Can Find the Feeling (radio edit)" - The Master Musicians of Jajouka; "Mairzy Doats"
- Sound Design/Sound Editors
- Adam Johnston
- Jayme Parker
- Sound Design
- John Paul Fasal
- Production Sound Mixer
- James Thornton
- Re-recording Mixers
- Robert Litt
- Kevin E. Carpenter
- Michael Herbick
- Dubbing Recordists
- Marsha Sorce
- Kevin Webb
- Supervising Sound Editor
- J. Paul Huntsman
- Dialogue Editor
- Patrick J. Foley
- ADR
- Supervisor:
- Thomas G. Whiting
- Recordist:
- Rick Canelli
- Mixer:
- Thomas J. O'Connell
- Foley
- Artists:
- John Roesch
- Alyson Moore
- Recordist:
- Carolyn Tapp
- Mixer:
- Mary Jo Lang
- Editors:
- David L. Horton Jr
- David M. Horton
- FBI Consultant
- Peter Weireter
- Medical Technical Adviser
- Donna Duffy
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Jack Gill
- Animal Action
- Boone's Animals for Hollywood
- Head Trainer:
- David Allsberry
- Trainer:
- Ursula Brauner
- Eeels
- Chip Matheson
- Helicopter Pilot
- Dirk Vahle
- Film Extract
- La Planète sauvage (1973)
- Cast
- Jennifer Lopez
- Catherine Deane
- Vince Vaughn
- Agent Peter Novak
- Vincent D'Onofrio
- Carl Stargher
- Marianne Jean-Baptiste
- Dr Miriam Kent
- Jake Weber
- Agent Gordon Ramsey
- Dylan Baker
- Henry West
- James Gammon
- Dr Theodore 'Teddy' Lee
- Tara Subkoff
- Julia Hickson
- Gerry Becker
- Doctor Cooperman
- Dean Norris
- Agent Travis Cole
- Musetta Vander
- Ella Baines
- Patrick Bauchau
- Lucien Baines
- Colton James
- Edward Baines
- Catherine Sutherland
- Anne Marie Vicksey
- Lauri Johnson
- Mrs Hickson
- John Cothran Jr
- Agent Stockwell
- Jack Conley
- Agent Brock
- Kamar de los Reyes
- Officer Alexander
- Christopher Janney
- SWAT team member
- Nicholas Cascone
- FBI technician
- Joe La Piana
- FBI K-9 agent
- Pruitt Taylor Vince
- Dr Milton Reid
- Jake Thomas
- young Carl Stargher
- Kim Chizevsky-Nicholls
- Jennifer Dawn Day
- Alanna Vicente
- Aja Echols
- Vanessa Branch
- Elena Maddalo
- Stargher's victims
- Gareth Williams
- Martin, Stargher's father
- Glenda Chism
- woman in tub
- Monica Lacy
- Joy Creel liefeld
- Leanna Creel
- mothers
- Alan Purwin
- helicopter pilot
- Tim
- Valentine
- Certificate
- 18
- Distributor
- Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd
- 9,812 feet
- 109 minutes 2 seconds
- Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
- Colour by
- DeLuxe
- 2.35:1 [Super 35]