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Minority Report
***1/2
Cinema Releases - July 5, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 12. USA.
145 minutes. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Jon Cohen, Scott Frank;
from the short story by Philip K. Dick. Starring Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow,
Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Kathryn Morris.
First off, let's be grateful that this movie has
actually been made. Steven Spielberg has more than once optioned a literary
work and then lost interest in directing its movie adaptation. (Anyone remember
"Memoirs of a Geisha"?) But by God, here we have "Minority
Report", directed by Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise and adapted from
the short story by Philip K. Dick.
The work itself: Overwhelming. Positively, negatively,
take it as you will, but the visuals are so complex, vast, detailed and
interestingly thought out that I needed a second viewing just to grasp the
damned film and concentrate on the rhythm of its story. Spielberg sets his
picture in 2054, and builds technology around familiar Washington, D.C. landmarks
like the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. There are futuristic federal housing
blocks as well as buildings from the 19th and 20th Centuries. Cars glide
up, down and across electromagnetic motorway strips that pull vehicles to
their destinations. Advertising moves on posters and boxes, recognising the
retinal codes of passers-by and addressing them by name. It's all kinda creepy,
kinda fascinating, and... I must repeat myself...
overwhelming.
Perhaps by now you know the set-up: Cruise plays
a chief in the Precrime Department, which houses three 'pre-cognative' humans
in a chemical tank and sees their premonitions of murder on a video bank.
Precrime cops investigate the footage and arrest potential killers before
their acts are committed. Washington, D.C. has not seen a murder in six years
thanks to this system, and there's about to be a ballot initiative to set
it up nationally, but questions abound: Can the system produce false positives?
Is it right to lock up people who have committed no crime? Isn't there an
irony in protecting freedom by holding and drugging the pre-cogs, and not
thinking of them as human?
The story kicks off when a vision is projected
of Cruise himself committing a murder. He tells his boss and mentor, played
by Max von Sydow, that he thinks he's being framed -- perhaps by the guy
from the Justice Department who has been sniffing around, an ex-cop turned
suit played by Colin Farrell. A chase ensues, through which Cruise hopes
to not only escape imprisonment but also find answers.
Spielberg is a master director of action scenes,
so it's funny that the running and chasing in "Minority Report" is that which
excites us least. We get those old visual gags involving guys crashing through
windows and floorboards as kids practice their musical instruments and families
sit down to dinner, and there's a scene in a factory whereby Cruise has to
escape his pursuers and avoid being attacked by the moving parts of an assembly
line. We've seen this stuff before, and not all of it is still
working.
The action scenes do a tremendous job, however,
of showing off a vision of the future. They also develop the lead performance;
after the dramatic scenes put things in context, Cruise is free and able
in his moments of fleeing to suggest deep levels of fear, frustration and
disillusionment. It's a great performance. "Minority Report" is photographed
in distant, dark, washed-out tones, but it is Cruise who allows the film
to embody noir values. He delivers as the hero of a big-budget movie while
convincing us of sorrow and scars, of drug use and suppressed rage, and of
being at the centre of a tough murder mystery.
Max von Sydow's presence is always nice to see,
but the movie's two most striking supporting performances come from young
actors. Samantha Morton is Agatha, the only female pre-cog and therefore
of course the strongest -- but she's physically weak and too emotionally
sensitive to take the world around her. When Cruise needs to kidnap her from
the tank and download her information, we can hardly bear to watch; she shivers
and flops like a baby flayed, and at one point lets slip, "I'm so tired of
the future." Colin Farrell, who also attracted attention in "Tigerland" and
"Hart's War", suggests again that he is on the way to becoming a movie lovers'
favourite. He's got one of those sensationally sharp faces, like the young
De Niro, and his demeanour has the kind of hungry intensity that can convince
us of the character he's playing while nonetheless letting us reflect that
we're watching one helluvan actor.
Because "Minority Report" deals with so many themes,
spoken and buried, and because its performances are so strong, it doesn't
matter that the action sequences don't all come together, or that we can
see many of the plot twists coming. The movie is so well made that we let
ourselves ignore the clichés, and even if we guess certain surprises
in advance, it gives us time to ponder how systems of control will never
work when the flaws of human nature interfere. We're wrapped up in the
characters, how they make their choices, and why.
Spielberg is in an experimental phase right now.
After pulling off the monumental challenge of "Schindler's List" (1993),
I guess he wants to see how far he can push himself, by trying subjects and
specifics that might be too hard for even he to command. Perhaps that means
his new films are bound to have flaws, but at least he hasn't bored us yet.
"Minority Report" has stretches of impact and moments of awe. If it leaves
plot holes and paradoxes spinning in our minds, well, that comes with science
fiction territory. And if occasionally it makes us wince at Spielberg's
unevenness, well hell, I can live with that too.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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