12 MonkeysTerry Gilliam is one of those few directors that can visually enthrall the viewers. The one problem is that his movies are very confusing. 12 Monkeys, though not as confusing as Gilliam's Brazil, is one of those movies. It gives us a complex story, but I think that it's mostly complex so that Gilliam can give us his visual experience. In this way, we almost forget about the story just so we can pay attention to the details in every shot.
But for those of you who like a good story, here it is. The movie opens with a written excerpt from a schizophrenic mental patient. It claims that 5 billion people will be destroyed in 1997. This is a wonderful premise and it makes us want to know more. We find James Cole (Bruce Willis) locked in a cage with other people. He is volunteered to go out into the upper-world and collect specimens for the scientists to study. When he gets back, they tell him about a special mission. He accepts, not having much of a choice.
They send him back in time, to the year 1990. He was destined for 1996, but the scientists sent him to the wrong time. While there, he is institutionalized because everyone thought he was crazy, talking about a virus that kills billions of people. He meets a couple of key people in this time, Dr. Railley (Madeline Stowe) and Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt, in a stunning role). Dr. Railley is his psychiatrist, while Goines is his friend in the institution. Goines shows him around the place in a wonderful scene that is well acted by Pitt. After Cole tries to escape, he is placed in a cell, where the scientists pick him up.
They send him back to the right time, October of 1996. But not after another accidental stop in the middle of World War I. He gets shot in the leg and then sent to 1996. He meets up with Dr. Railley again and she is astounded to see him again. He forces her to drive him to Philadelphia, because that is where it all started. She reluctantly drives him and they discuss music, a boy trapped in a pipe, and the gun shot wound. She decides to remove the bullet so that the wound can heal. When she extracts the bullet, she finds that it is much more unusual than normal bullets.
I'm going to stop telling the story because anymore would reveal the surprises and plot twists. But that's half the fun of the movie. Watching the events unfold and come together has been a great tradition in good mystery movies (Chinatown is a good example of this). And that's what this movie is, it's a mystery. But it's a very confusing mystery at that. I had to watch it three times to understand it (two in a five hour period, in fact). But finally, when I did understand the entire plot, I was exhausted. The movie actually forced my brain to think about the scenes. Many scenes that were at the beginning of the movie related to some at the end. I had to keep track of them all and put the pieces of the puzzle together myself.
There were two disappointments that I had with the movie. One was the ending. I wanted something different and better to happen. But I realized that nothing would change (you'll understand if you see it). The other thing is that it is way too complicated. I think that it might have been in the director's mind to do this. That way, people will come back to see it just to understand the movie. That's why I waited till it came out on video... I was able to watch it three times for $3. Pretty good deal.
The two best things of the movie was the visual style and the performances. Gilliam has always been like this, from what I have seen of his stuff. Every scene is rich with detail that all seems to relate to the story. I love it when directors do this. Another example of this is the movie Seven. I wish more directors would do this because if you have a stupid story, then people will forget about it and just "look" at it. The performances are magnificent. Brad Pitt, who I thought could never act in a million years, gives one of the best performances this year. Though not as good as the sly Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects, Pitt proves himself as an actor with one of the best psycho-parts I have seen. How he got his eyes to move in different directions, I'll never know. Bruce Willis is also good as the confused man who is trying to straighten everything out, including his mind. Madeline Stowe is wonderful, especially her 180 degree spin when she tries to prove that he is, in fact, from the future.
12 Monkeys is rated R. The violence is pretty gruesome when it is there. The language is not that harsh for an R rating. There are also a couple of nudity scenes where Pitt and Willis show their butts. (Actually, only Pitt really shows it to us.) But the subject is dark and dreary and the story will confuse most people. But if you do understand the movie the first time around, you must be smarter than me... or more observant.
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