Brief plot synopsis:
The premise of the film is that Bruce Willis's character, James Cole, turns up in Baltimore in 1990, claiming that he is from the future. In that future, the majority of the world's population was wiped out by a virus in late 1996. Whilst institutionalised, Cole meets Dr Railly (Madeleine Stowe) and a maniacal Brad Pitt character. After a bit we cut to 1996, where Cole and Railly get together again.
Overall, it was quite a good film, but there were a couple of areas that I had difficulty with. One was the ending, which I won't go into in too much detail over, in case that spoils things for others. The other was one of the key themes of the film, and for mine it was handled very badly. This was the question of whether or not James Cole really was delusional, or whether he really was from the future. Casting Bruce Willis as Cole made it difficult to believe that he was delusional - after all a man who can survive three 'Die Hard' movies without a scratch on him, and without going mad, is hardly likely to become insane over a little thing like the end of civilisation.
However, it is undoubtedly a better film than your average run-of-the-mill Hollywood sci-fi action movie. There is some thought required - though not much, and the possibility that this is all the fantasy of some madman is raised, although too easily dismissed by the audience.
As with the other Gilliam films I have seen, there is some beautiful imagery in the film, but for once it didn't seem to interfere with the story. Willis, recognising that this is an 'art' film revisits his 'Pulp Fiction' role, and Pitt is gleefully insane, but the incidental characters seem a bit weak.
7/10
timnfromoz
© 1997 timnfromoz@hotmail.com
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