Growing up, I was a huge fan of police procedurals, in general, but what truly tickled my fancy were the adventures of private eyes.
These independent dispensers of justice – as they are sometimes called – weren’t always portrayed in media as private eyes. Sometimes they were retired novelists. Other times, they might’ve taken the shape of the seasoned town doctor. That was the beauty of falling into this niche of fandom: these brilliant minds of deduction could very well have come from any professional pursuit. Anyone with a brain could apply, and anyone with a desire to solve puzzles was up to the task. From the banker who noticed a curious series of sizable withdrawals to the gaggle of kids who wanted to be Sherlock Holmes, everyone could match wits and take down the baddies, not just those folks who carried a badge.
After all: we don’t need no stinking badges!
At its core, The Cell (2000) is no different. I suspect that’s how visionary director Tarsem Singh may very well have approach Mark Protosevich’s script: once you pull away all of the fanciful technology of the equipment giving technicians access to their patient’s subconscious, you’re left with the kind-hearted problem solver – Catherine Deane (as played by Jennifer Lopez) – pairing up with FBI Agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) in order to solve a crime and save a life. And had all of it stayed that simple, then maybe I would’ve come away with a greater appreciation for the effort.
What happened?
Well, social politics got in the way, spoiling for me what was an otherwise interesting concept. While I did admire the construct and have nothing but praise for a good degree of its execution, I’ll almost always pull away when the yarn resorts to progressive posturing at any point. Though what I see may not look the same to readers, I’m still happy to share just where I thought this Lopez and Vaughn team-up turned a corner and asked me to celebrate something that which I don’t believe, nor think any of you should either.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“An F.B.I. Agent persuades a social worker, who is adept with a new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in order to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim.”
These independent dispensers of justice – as they are sometimes called – weren’t always portrayed in media as private eyes. Sometimes they were retired novelists. Other times, they might’ve taken the shape of the seasoned town doctor. That was the beauty of falling into this niche of fandom: these brilliant minds of deduction could very well have come from any professional pursuit. Anyone with a brain could apply, and anyone with a desire to solve puzzles was up to the task. From the banker who noticed a curious series of sizable withdrawals to the gaggle of kids who wanted to be Sherlock Holmes, everyone could match wits and take down the baddies, not just those folks who carried a badge.
After all: we don’t need no stinking badges!
At its core, The Cell (2000) is no different. I suspect that’s how visionary director Tarsem Singh may very well have approach Mark Protosevich’s script: once you pull away all of the fanciful technology of the equipment giving technicians access to their patient’s subconscious, you’re left with the kind-hearted problem solver – Catherine Deane (as played by Jennifer Lopez) – pairing up with FBI Agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) in order to solve a crime and save a life. And had all of it stayed that simple, then maybe I would’ve come away with a greater appreciation for the effort.
What happened?
Well, social politics got in the way, spoiling for me what was an otherwise interesting concept. While I did admire the construct and have nothing but praise for a good degree of its execution, I’ll almost always pull away when the yarn resorts to progressive posturing at any point. Though what I see may not look the same to readers, I’m still happy to share just where I thought this Lopez and Vaughn team-up turned a corner and asked me to celebrate something that which I don’t believe, nor think any of you should either.
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“An F.B.I. Agent persuades a social worker, who is adept with a new experimental technology, to enter the mind of a comatose serial killer in order to learn where he has hidden his latest kidnap victim.”
I’ve always suggested that audiences want to root for the side of good whenever it comes up against evil; and – for the bulk of The Cell’s story – that much is true.
Singh’s direction of Protosevich’s story feels at times like a somewhat watered-down version of Se7en (1995), that David Fincher police procedural that left audiences feeling like they needed a shower and left Gwyneth Paltrow’s character as little more than a head in a box. (Spoilers?) The significant difference, however, is that The Cell spends time ‘in the head’ of its antagonist and protagonist – literally – and the resulting visuals lack that grim world reality that helped Se7en deliver its measure of creepiness and revulsion. Because so much of it is in the imagination and memory of serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D’Onofrio, in a very good performance), it just never feels as horrific as I think it needed to be. Still, when a crowd sees the man’s evil visions, it becomes easy for them to cheer for the good guys, especially when Novak – a complete and unprepared initiate – chooses to enter this spirit world to save Deane’s consciousness after it’s been figuratively captured by Stargher.
But because these accompanying visuals are delivered within a kind of rock music video template – indeed, Singh got his directing start in the heyday of MTV – I just didn’t take them seriously. When you were raised as I was back at a time when every band was actively pushing the envelope artistically and such optical punctuation could be enjoyed 24/7, these stylings – while good – just lost a lot of their originality, their persuasiveness, and their narrative power. As such, Stargher’s nightmares – the narrative spine to the film if ever there were – weren’t all that stupendously terrifying. They were, in fact, not all that unlike what David Lee Roth, Nine Inch Nails, R.E.M., and even Madonna had already shown us. If we survived those, then we – as Lopez and Vaughn – would certainly survive these.
Another uncomfortable truth, however, is that Hollywood had arguably invested at this point a great deal of their hopes for the still budding theatrical career of Ms. Lopez.
She had emerged as a power player in 1998 in Steven Soderbergh’s praised-to-the-point-of-being-overpraised Out Of Sight, a bit of a caper flick which benefitted more from being based on the work of novelist Elmore Leonard than it did with the singer-turned-actress’s involvement. (Yes, I said what I said.) The powers that be had anointed the lady with the California crown; and given the fact that they were as equally invested with cashing in on the science of virtual reality – of which the film’s central science closely resembles – a bona fide phenomenon on the big screen then how could their pairing go wrong in The Cell? Well, that might be the fact that Lopez displays no ability to functionally emote in the picture, and it shows rather painstakingly to be the case here as she spends the bulk of her scenes looking on, trying to muster an expression, and speaking in a volume barely above a whisper. Mind you: she looks good in the role, especially in that form-fitted latex rubber suit … and I’ve no doubt that’s ninety percent of what these movers and shakers based their decisions on. Unfortunately, you still can’t fix a lack of talent in post.
Singh’s direction of Protosevich’s story feels at times like a somewhat watered-down version of Se7en (1995), that David Fincher police procedural that left audiences feeling like they needed a shower and left Gwyneth Paltrow’s character as little more than a head in a box. (Spoilers?) The significant difference, however, is that The Cell spends time ‘in the head’ of its antagonist and protagonist – literally – and the resulting visuals lack that grim world reality that helped Se7en deliver its measure of creepiness and revulsion. Because so much of it is in the imagination and memory of serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D’Onofrio, in a very good performance), it just never feels as horrific as I think it needed to be. Still, when a crowd sees the man’s evil visions, it becomes easy for them to cheer for the good guys, especially when Novak – a complete and unprepared initiate – chooses to enter this spirit world to save Deane’s consciousness after it’s been figuratively captured by Stargher.
But because these accompanying visuals are delivered within a kind of rock music video template – indeed, Singh got his directing start in the heyday of MTV – I just didn’t take them seriously. When you were raised as I was back at a time when every band was actively pushing the envelope artistically and such optical punctuation could be enjoyed 24/7, these stylings – while good – just lost a lot of their originality, their persuasiveness, and their narrative power. As such, Stargher’s nightmares – the narrative spine to the film if ever there were – weren’t all that stupendously terrifying. They were, in fact, not all that unlike what David Lee Roth, Nine Inch Nails, R.E.M., and even Madonna had already shown us. If we survived those, then we – as Lopez and Vaughn – would certainly survive these.
Another uncomfortable truth, however, is that Hollywood had arguably invested at this point a great deal of their hopes for the still budding theatrical career of Ms. Lopez.
She had emerged as a power player in 1998 in Steven Soderbergh’s praised-to-the-point-of-being-overpraised Out Of Sight, a bit of a caper flick which benefitted more from being based on the work of novelist Elmore Leonard than it did with the singer-turned-actress’s involvement. (Yes, I said what I said.) The powers that be had anointed the lady with the California crown; and given the fact that they were as equally invested with cashing in on the science of virtual reality – of which the film’s central science closely resembles – a bona fide phenomenon on the big screen then how could their pairing go wrong in The Cell? Well, that might be the fact that Lopez displays no ability to functionally emote in the picture, and it shows rather painstakingly to be the case here as she spends the bulk of her scenes looking on, trying to muster an expression, and speaking in a volume barely above a whisper. Mind you: she looks good in the role, especially in that form-fitted latex rubber suit … and I’ve no doubt that’s ninety percent of what these movers and shakers based their decisions on. Unfortunately, you still can’t fix a lack of talent in post.
Where I struggle with Hollywood productions like The Cell is over its rather obvious or even lazy political posture. Frankly, dabbling in social justice has killed a good number of competent thrillers. Somewhere along the way this picture tried to veer both Right and Left, leaving me (and perhaps others) struggling with just what to make of its confused psychosexual histrionics, so much so that maybe we all would’ve been better off if Lopez and Vaughn simply kissed at the end.
Only in Tinseltown – that not-so-quaint Sodom and Gomorrah that’s produced such financial heavyweights and morally compromised lightweights as Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, and (allegedly) Kevin Spacey – can the infamous serial killer be portrayed as the chief victim. (Call me ‘old-fashioned,’ but I still prefer knowing evil is truly evil.) The script is structured to explore the historical compulsions and how they developed to force an innocent young child on this path, once again ascribing the central guilt smack onto the shoulder’s Progressive’s favored villain – ‘the old white man.’ While D’Onofrio’s work as the emotionally troubled Carl Stargher is occasionally compelling, the script’s ‘magic bullet’ is to immediately cast him as the victim of an abusive father, thus visually and eventually literally ‘washing away’ his sins (in the river) even though, as FBI Agent Novak explains, Stargher willfully made the choice to follow his heart’s gory pursuits.
Were that the end of the whole affair, then perhaps I might not have felt so ill at ease; and yet The Cell worsens matters by granting Deane the chance to cleanse our killer of his misdeeds in a ceremony reminiscent of any backwoods baptism: she dips him backwards into the water only then to hold him under until he drowns! (Yes, I’m fully aware this thematically bookends an earlier sequence suggesting that Carl’s earlier baptism – a religious ceremony if ever there were – was part of the cause to all of his celebrated madness but stick with me here.) Not only is this disrespectful to an act meant to bring a person closer to God but also the storytellers would have you celebrating Deane – painted as the best choice for this experimental program – essentially drowning a young boy on film. Dismiss considering this symbolism as a cure, and you’re left with as cold-blooded an act that Stargher ever committed. That seems like a bridge too far for this simpleton.
I live in a world where words and pictures and ideas mean things.
They’re not just thrown together without meaning or context, and the result is that their messages – intended or otherwise – can be interpreted differently across members of any audience. What you see isn’t necessarily what I see, and that’s entirely okay. (Isn’t that what psychology teaches us? That just because child abuse turned one youngster into a lunatic doesn’t necessarily require that it do the same of all?) As such, not everyone will see The Cell as a commentary on the inherent blessings of capital punishment, but – as I always remind readers – I only speak for myself. Though I’ve no problem had Stargher been sentenced by a jury of his peers to hang at midnight, I still take issue with the depiction of any medical or psychological professional – who should pledge to ‘first do no harm’ – euthanizing a patient clearly mentally incapacitated because ‘her heart’ told it was the right thing to do … even if that heart might belong to the original P. Diddy girl, Jennifer Lopez.
Only in Tinseltown – that not-so-quaint Sodom and Gomorrah that’s produced such financial heavyweights and morally compromised lightweights as Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, and (allegedly) Kevin Spacey – can the infamous serial killer be portrayed as the chief victim. (Call me ‘old-fashioned,’ but I still prefer knowing evil is truly evil.) The script is structured to explore the historical compulsions and how they developed to force an innocent young child on this path, once again ascribing the central guilt smack onto the shoulder’s Progressive’s favored villain – ‘the old white man.’ While D’Onofrio’s work as the emotionally troubled Carl Stargher is occasionally compelling, the script’s ‘magic bullet’ is to immediately cast him as the victim of an abusive father, thus visually and eventually literally ‘washing away’ his sins (in the river) even though, as FBI Agent Novak explains, Stargher willfully made the choice to follow his heart’s gory pursuits.
Were that the end of the whole affair, then perhaps I might not have felt so ill at ease; and yet The Cell worsens matters by granting Deane the chance to cleanse our killer of his misdeeds in a ceremony reminiscent of any backwoods baptism: she dips him backwards into the water only then to hold him under until he drowns! (Yes, I’m fully aware this thematically bookends an earlier sequence suggesting that Carl’s earlier baptism – a religious ceremony if ever there were – was part of the cause to all of his celebrated madness but stick with me here.) Not only is this disrespectful to an act meant to bring a person closer to God but also the storytellers would have you celebrating Deane – painted as the best choice for this experimental program – essentially drowning a young boy on film. Dismiss considering this symbolism as a cure, and you’re left with as cold-blooded an act that Stargher ever committed. That seems like a bridge too far for this simpleton.
I live in a world where words and pictures and ideas mean things.
They’re not just thrown together without meaning or context, and the result is that their messages – intended or otherwise – can be interpreted differently across members of any audience. What you see isn’t necessarily what I see, and that’s entirely okay. (Isn’t that what psychology teaches us? That just because child abuse turned one youngster into a lunatic doesn’t necessarily require that it do the same of all?) As such, not everyone will see The Cell as a commentary on the inherent blessings of capital punishment, but – as I always remind readers – I only speak for myself. Though I’ve no problem had Stargher been sentenced by a jury of his peers to hang at midnight, I still take issue with the depiction of any medical or psychological professional – who should pledge to ‘first do no harm’ – euthanizing a patient clearly mentally incapacitated because ‘her heart’ told it was the right thing to do … even if that heart might belong to the original P. Diddy girl, Jennifer Lopez.
The Cell (2000) was produced by New Line Cinema, Caro-McLeod, RadicalMedia, Katira Productions GmbH & Co. KG, and Avery Pix. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Arrow Films. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert … wow. I recall seeing this one theatrically back in the day, and this 4K print just looks fabulous in so many ways. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? In order to be precise, I’m doing the noble copy-and-paste from Arrow’s press release previously published on Blu-ray.com:
DISC ONE - FEATURE & EXTRAS 4K BLU-RAY
DISC TWO - ALTERNATE VERSION & EXTRAS BLU-RAY
Once more, I remind readers that as I’ve only received a manufactured copy of the disc, I cannot speak to the efficacy of any associated print materials such as artwork, inserts, booklets, essays, and the like. With those items, I’ll always caution you with the usual ‘buyer beware’ caveat.
- NEW 4K RESTORATIONS of both the 107-minute Theatrical Cut and the 109-minute Director's Cut by Arrow Films, approved by director Tarsem Singh
- Includes bonus disc containing a previously unseen version of the film with alternate aspect ratio and alternate grading created by director of photography Paul Laufer
- Original lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Illustrated collector's book containing new writing on the film by critics Heather Drain, Marc Edward Heuck, Josh Hurtado, and Virat Nehru
- Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Savieri
DISC ONE - FEATURE & EXTRAS 4K BLU-RAY
- 4K Blu-ray presentation of both the Theatrical and Director's cuts of the film in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Brand new audio commentary with film scholars Josh Nelson & Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- Brand new audio commentary with screenwriter Mark Protosevich & film critic Kay Lynch
- Archive audio commentary with director Tarsem Singh
- Archive audio commentary with director of photography Paul Laufer, production designer Tom Foden, makeup supervisor Michèle Burke, costume designer April Napier, visual effects supervisor Kevin Tod Haug, and composer Howard Shore
- Projection of the Mind's Eye, a new feature-length interview with director Tarsem Singh
- Between Two Worlds, a new in-depth interview with director of photography Paul Laufer
DISC TWO - ALTERNATE VERSION & EXTRAS BLU-RAY
- Previously unseen version of the Theatrical Cut of the film, presented in 1.78:1 aspect ratio with alternate grading, from a 2K master created by director of photography Paul Laufer
- Paul Laufer Illuminates, a new interview about the alternate master of The Cell presented on this disc
- Art is Where You Find It, a new visual essay by film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- The Costuming Auteur, a new visual essay by film critic Abby Bender
- Style as Substance: Reflections on Tarsem, an archive featurette
- Eight deleted/extended scenes with optional audio commentary by director Tarsem Singh
- Six multi-angle archive visual effects vignettes
- Theatrical trailers
- Image gallery
Once more, I remind readers that as I’ve only received a manufactured copy of the disc, I cannot speak to the efficacy of any associated print materials such as artwork, inserts, booklets, essays, and the like. With those items, I’ll always caution you with the usual ‘buyer beware’ caveat.
Recommended.
Even at twenty-five years young, there’s no denying the visual flourish of The Cell (2000): it’s a flick that even had to invent a new kind of camera technology to make it look as vivid and nightmarish as it does in some key sequences. My issues with it, however, go surpass the aesthetics. Beyond Vaughn’s steadfast FBI character committed against even his own health and safety to get to the bottom of a gruesome serial killer’s campaign there’s just no one else in this murky story to root for ... well except for the Stargher's last potential victim. As popular a choice that Lopez may’ve been for the lead back in the day, she’s just all wrong as the supposed brainiac social worker hoping to ‘Mother Hen’ all of her patients into wellness. A stronger actress might’ve made me feel otherwise; but – at this point – it’s all academic anyway.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Arrow Films provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray copy of The Cell (2000) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Even at twenty-five years young, there’s no denying the visual flourish of The Cell (2000): it’s a flick that even had to invent a new kind of camera technology to make it look as vivid and nightmarish as it does in some key sequences. My issues with it, however, go surpass the aesthetics. Beyond Vaughn’s steadfast FBI character committed against even his own health and safety to get to the bottom of a gruesome serial killer’s campaign there’s just no one else in this murky story to root for ... well except for the Stargher's last potential victim. As popular a choice that Lopez may’ve been for the lead back in the day, she’s just all wrong as the supposed brainiac social worker hoping to ‘Mother Hen’ all of her patients into wellness. A stronger actress might’ve made me feel otherwise; but – at this point – it’s all academic anyway.
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Arrow Films provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray copy of The Cell (2000) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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