Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow, Samantha Morton.
Minority Report is like that really smart friend of yours who says stupid things every now and again. You know they're smart, so you cut them some slack, but you still find yourself asking just what in God's name they were thinking. Report, based on a short story by the legendary Philip K. Dick, is one of the smartest thrillers of the year, but it's always reminding you of that fact. It's a show-off of a film, repeatedly daring you to gasp at the tangled web weaved by the plot, or marvel at futuristic imagery only a mad genius like Steven Spielberg can throw up on the screen. Ultimately, however, the film left me looking for more.
But you have to give it credit for trying. Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, a Washington, D.C. police officer leading an elite squad of detectives who capture criminals before they're criminals. Through interpreting the visions of three psychic "Pre-Cogs," the Pre-Crime unit can intervene prior to the commission of the crime. The opening sequence showcases one such intervention, a riveting race against time as Anderton desperately tries to figure out what exactly the Pre-Cogs told him, and stop a jealous husband from murdering his adulterous wife in their Georgetown townhome. It's really good stuff, and gets you excited for more.
| Work it Tom, fabulous! |
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All is not well with Pre-Crime, however. Justice Department agent Danny Witwer (Colin "still the next big thing after half-a-dozen movies" Farrell) is investigating Pre-Crime to determine whether it really works as advertised. Anderton's boss, Director Burgess (Max von Sydow), is attempting to deflect scrutiny of Pre-Crime as a referendum to take the project national approaches. While Witwer digs, we learn that Anderton is a conflicted soul. His son mysteriously abducted, his wife estranged, Anderton finds whatever solace he can in his work, and in a drug addiction. As soon as the audience sympathizes with how troubled his life is, Anderton discovers that the Pre-Cogs have found a new murder suspect: him.
Thusly, the film poses a number of questions. Will Anderton kill his victim, as predicted by the Pre-Cogs? Was he set-up, and by whom? What does it mean for the impending rollout of the national Pre-Crime program? What's with all these question marks?
| "The power of Pre-Crime compels you!" |
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Okay, I'm not going to spoil anything here for you, but if you intend to see the movie free and clear, you may not want to go further. But I have to say that, contrary to what you may have heard, I didn't find Minority Report half as engaging as many other reviewers. My expectations were high, but not stratospheric; about where they are for any Spielberg movie. Unlike last year's A.I., Report is actually a fully-realized film. Unfortunately, like that earlier film, Report manages to have something like four or five endings where one or two would suffice (seriously, who here thinks A.I. would be considered close to a masterpiece if the film ended with Ol' Haley Joe at the bottom of the Atlantic, spending eternity wishing to be a real boy? Or if the film made it abundantly clear that the "aliens" at the end were actually descendants of the machines? Sorry, I so do enjoy fighting the last war. . .).
Minority Report is your standard film noir, only set in the 2050's instead of the 1930's. Unlike Ridley Scott's classic Blade Runner, also based on a Philip K. Dick story, Report is a close relative in substance if not in style. It's still pessimistic about the future, but it does it with a bit of a smile. Hey, any movie that says in fifty years Washington won't be a big radioactive pile of glass is a sunny film indeed.
Yet, what lazy imagination is displayed in portraying the future! Obviously, you can begin with the central tenet of the story, that psychic Pre-Cogs exist who can predict murders. An interesting idea to be sure, but certainly not hard science fiction. Pre-Cogs are about as likely to occur as the emergence of a twelve-foot-tall talking panda who's able to predict my dating habits. To hear the media publicize this film, however, you would think that the parable of Pre-Crime has something relevant to tell us about our current situation in the War on Terrorism. Uh yeah, sure pal -- it's only a movie. I doubt John Ashcroft is lying in a pool of psychoreactive fluid predicting where Al-Qaeda will strike next, although I admit it is a pretty funky mental image. Maybe that's where Dick Cheney's been hiding. . .
Even the little details feel cutesy instead of ingenious. Lousy holograms that look worse than your average grainy photograph. Retinal scans when any one of a dozen other security methods would be more reliable, albeit less convenient as a plot device. Cell phones that fit on your ear when they are -- today -- designing cell phones that fit in your teeth. But hey, at least they finally built a new version of I-395 into Washington (complete with magnetic cars straight outta The Jetsons).
| Wow, in 2054 we'll be able to surf high-rises? I can't wait! |
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Tom Cruise acts well enough, but his character isn't too original. Why is it that every troubled cop has to spend hours looking at photos (or in this case, those awful holograms) of their deceased loved ones? At least Colin Farrell looked like he was having fun. When I wasn't being distracted by lame intimations of what the future will look like, I was amiably bored with a rather pedestrian whodunit plot. The added curse of having to wade through multiple "gotcha!" endings doesn't help matters. Also, it's never a good sign when a thriller has key characters out loud, slowly, and in small words explain what just happened and why it's important. I kept waiting for the moment where the villain takes off their mask and blames the meddling Pre-Cogs for ruining their evil plan.
So. . . I'm sorry if all this sounds like Minority Report is an awful movie, because it's not. I enjoyed it on a visceral level, as an ambitious action thriller that at the very least made me sit up and pay attention to what was happening on the screen.
Unfortunately, as a mystery it committed the cardinal sin of not being very mysterious. In the end, it was still better than most of the dreck I sit through, a movie well worth seeing. Just don't get your hopes up.
Minority Report gets three popcorns.
Things to watch out for: It's made clear that in 2054 there are now giant 100+ story apartment buildings on the Virginia side of the Potomac -- yet in some of the long flying shots you see the much more diminutive buildings standing today in 2002. Run outta money for the CGI, Steve? Also, watch the action sequence in the automated Lexus factory and just try to avoid thinking of the droid factory scene in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. They're nearly identical, right down to the enemy sonic weapons and our hero facing attack by a bolting machine on a conveyor be. Finally, if in the future we have computers that can be spoken to, or conducted like an orchestra, just why does anyone still use a keyboard? Carpal tunnel fetish??
Dave Kozik is a guest critic, filling in while Filmboy is on sabbatical.
