The Cell (2000)

Regista:

Tarsem Singh

Sceneggiatore (WGA):

Mark Protosevich (written by)

Data di uscita:

18 agosto 2000 (USA)

Genere:

Crime | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Slogan:

This Summer... Enter The Mind Of A Killer

Plot:

A psychotherapist journeys inside a comatose serial killer in the hopes of saving his latest victim.

Plot Keywords:

SWAT | Breasts | Necrophilia | Morgue | Stylized

Premi:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 18 nominations

Recensioni degli utenti:

The Cell: whoa... eww... whoa...

Cast

Jennifer Lopez	...	Catherine Deane
Colton James	...	Edward Baines
Dylan Baker	...	Henry West
Marianne Jean-Baptiste	...	Dr. Miriam Kent
Gerry Becker	...	Dr. Barry Cooperman
Musetta Vander	...	Ella Baines
Patrick Bauchau	...	Lucien Baines
Vincent D'Onofrio	...	Carl Stargher
Catherine Sutherland	...	Anne Marie Vicksey
Vince Vaughn	...	Peter Novak
James Gammon	...	Teddy Lee
Jake Weber	...	Gordon Ramsey
Dean Norris	...	Cole
Tara Subkoff	...	Julia Hickson
Lauri Johnson	...	Mrs. Hickson

Alias:

The cell - La cellula (Italy) [it]

MPAA:

Rated R for bizarre violence and sexual images, nudity and language.

Durata:

107 min | Germany:109 min (director's cut)

Nazionalità:

USA | Germany

Lingua:

Inglese

Colore:

Colore

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sonoro:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Divieti:

Iceland:16 | Malaysia:U (cut version) | Malaysia:18PL (uncut version) | Brazil:16 | Argentina:18 | Australia:MA (original rating) | Australia:R (director's cut) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:16+ (Québec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) | Chile:18 | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | Germany:18 | Hong Kong:IIB | Hungary:18 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 (video rating) | New Zealand:R18 (director's cut) | Norway:18 | Peru:18 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R (certificate #37605) | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating) | Singapore:R(A)

Luoghi delle riprese:

Bakersfield, California, USA

Company:

Avery Pix

Curiosità:

The scene where Peter Novak first enters the mind of Carl Stargher, and is confronted by three females with open mouths to the sky is based on the painting "Dawn" by Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum.

Errori:

Continuity: The amount of intestine on the spit when Novack is being tortured.

Citazioni:

Miriam: Did we go sailing?
Catharine Deane: Almost! Mocky-Lock showed up.
Miriam: [saying a nursery rhyme] Mocky-Lock is the boogeyman, Mocky-Lock wants me where I am!
Catharine Deane: Mocky-Lock is a pain in the ass.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dil Chahta Hai (2001)

Colonna sonora:

O SCIORE CCHIU FELICE

The Cell: whoa... eww... whoa...

The last time I reviewed a film helmed by a music video director, I was very angry at what I'd seen (`Mystery Men'), but Tarsem Singh spares us the fish-eye lenses and commercial overindulgences and decides to concentrate on presenting an astonishing visual and audible journey into the mind of a serial killer in `The Cell'.

Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) kills women by drowning them in glass cells, all the while videotaping the event. Afterwards, he disfigures the bodies to resemble dolls and then tosses the finished `products' off highways into ditches and streams. Nice guy. He also likes to suspend himself on chains attached to hooks inserted directly into his back. Lovely.

Meanwhile, FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) is hot on the killer's trail, and although Carl's started to get sloppy, he's just kidnapped another girl and she has 40 hours before her cell fills with water. Carl is soon apprehended, but only because he enters into a schizophrenic seizure and falls into a coma on his kitchen floor. A coma? But how are they going to find out where the last victim is? Oh, if only they could TRAVEL INSIDE HIS MIND. Hey, what a coincidence! Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is a child psychologist involved in an experimental project that allows her to TRAVEL INSIDE THE MIND of coma victims.

And so begins a strange array of visuals and sounds, blended together so unusually that you honestly feel like you're experiencing a dream… a not so pleasant dream. Not only is Carl's mind slightly twisted, it's violent, disturbingly sexual, and very graphic. But, it's also like a train wreck; you can't help but look. Oddly enough, Mr. Singh clearly had the resources to make his special effects scream out at you with bright color and absurd lavishness, but he chose instead to simplify, placing the terror in the scale and content of the visuals. I can't even use an example. All I can say is think about a dream you've had that you couldn't describe to someone, and that's what watching this movie is like. The photography is so stunning that it virtually eliminates the need for dialogue (only about half the film has discourse), and coupled with the horrifically spooky and scathing soundtrack, the film literally takes on a life of its own.

My only objection is that when all is said and done, the only character we really understand is the serial killer. Several clues about the other characters' pasts led me to believe that their lives would come into play and that their own memories would be tested and confronted. To me, this would have taken this story to yet another psychological level, but perhaps it would have been too much for viewers.

Despite this shortcoming, `The Cell' stills provides a myriad of images that will make you want to watch a lot of cute cartoons before turning in for the night. Still, I don't know what was more disturbing: the movie, or the parents in the next row over who brought their two small kids to watch it.