It's a long time coming but you've probably seen Looper, last year's surprisingly smart and entertaining time-travel thriller. But I'm not here to tell you how good of a movie that was, I'm here to remind you that there was another time travel movie starring Bruce Willis.
Enter Twelve Monkeys, Terry Gilliam's take on the time travel idea. I personally love this film and would watch it anytime but I have a certain feeling that many people don't seem to remember the year 1995 when this film was released and it was proven that good modern science fiction doesn't have to be cluttered with mindless action scenes and pointless special effects wizardry to be compelling and exciting, that Terry Gilliam is able to make a film on his own terms (after the bitter fight over Brazil) and that jeans model/pretty boy Brad Pitt is actually able to act.
So what's the story you are asking? Bruce Willis is James Cole, a convict in an underground prison in the near future. We learn that the majority of mankind has been wiped out by a deadly virus, supposedly set free by the mysterious army of the Twelve Monkeys. Cole is chosen by a group of scientists to travel back in time to gather information about the virus for the scientists to study it.
At this point I am really tempted to give away more about the plot but Twelve Monkeys is a film that should be seen without any prior knowledge about what this set up leads to. On a very basic level, the film is exciting to watch, entertaining, tense and plot-driven. Giving away too much of the story would probably ruin the film for you on this very level but let me tell me you that the time travelling doesn't go as planned and that Cole doesn't end up in the times or places he is supposed to.
Then what is it apart from the mind-bending plot that keeps me coming back to Twelve Monkeys? Well, it's a multitude of things. Watching a Terry Gilliam movie is always a visual treat. Don't get me wrong on this statement, I don't mean that it's full of good-looking people or gorgeous photography. Actually one can say that Twelve Monkeys has quite an ugly look and feel to it. The future is not portrayed as shiningly white and with the newest technology but instead with a more industrial and dirty feel to it. Technology becomes a mean to an end without the pure aesthetics of an Apple product but more raw and rusty, and the underground setting creates a sense of space restriction. Interestingly enough the present (which in the movie is 1996) is portrayed in a similar way. Does that mean that Terry Gilliam is a pessimist about the current state of things and that the future actually looks even bleaker? Again, the film asks questions just as any good science fiction movie should do.
Another strong point is the acting. As mentioned before Brad Pitt gives a very decent performance as Jeffrey Goines, an inmate in the mental asylum. His fickleness is entirely unsettling and unexpected, every time he is onscreen you're wondering what he is going to do next. Watch the scenes that he shares with Bruce Willis and see how Pitt starts talking himself in a rage without Willis ever saying a single word, simply sitting there stone-faced, it's polar opposites on the spectrum of sanity. That doesn't mean that Willis himself plays a sane character, in fact as the movie progresses he keeps going further down the rabbit hole, losing sight of his mission and questioning his own perception of reality. The only thing he can rely on are his own animalistic instincts making him just as unpredictable as Pitt's character.
My favorite scene is when he kidnaps Madeleine Stowe's psychiatrist. First we see him acting like a violent thug forcing her into the car. Then while driving she switches on the radio and it's that very moment when you should watch how Willis' facial expression suddenly changes to childish giddiness and how excited he gets just to listen to music that is nonexistent in the future anymore. The scene is heartbreaking and says so much by doing so little and it's a truly cinematic moment that makes you cherish watching movies. Willis' performance is nothing outstanding but it's reliable and engaging to watch without ever feeling forced and it makes you appreciate him as an actor even more.
On that note, personally I think Bruce Willis is one of the more underrated actors of our time. It's easy to dismiss him as the regular guy who's good at saving the world while always keeping a sly grin on his face. But movies like Twelve Monkeys, The Sixth Sense, Moonrise Kingdom and even the original Die Hard show that there's more to him than just shallow entertainment and while it's undeniably true that he's good at playing the action hero he's not afraid to tackle new challenges in his films.
But back to Twelve Monkeys. You can probably tell that I really, really like this film so I urge you to watch it if you haven't done so yet. I know people who are not as fond of it as I am and I can understand why that is. Terry Gilliam's movies are definitely not for everyone, the language of his films isn't one that fits the mainstream easily which was famously proven by the initially mentioned infamous war with Universal Studios over the final cut of Brazil, another amazing film by him. Nonetheless, if you're open for something a bit more unusual but still exciting then Twelve Monkeys is your movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment