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 kid... Read allAn 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.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.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 9 wins & 29 nominations total
- Agent Stockwell
- (as John Cothran Jr.)
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- Writer
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Jennifer Lopez stars as Catherine Deane, the best psychotherapist in the business. She works for a company who has developed the latest technology in therapy. She has the ability to go inside the mind of anyone and find out the reasoning to his or her distress. Enter Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn), a FBI agent tracking down a very sick serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio), who drowns his victims then dresses them up like dolls. On a FBI raid of his home Stargher goes into a coma and the whereabouts of his next victim are unknown. So Deane takes the job of going into his mind to find out where the victim is being held. And that's when this film gets intense, seriously intense.
The director Tarsem Singh, known for the award winning R.E.M. video `Losing my Religion', blows away everything you could have imagined. The dream sequences are beautifully shot with many camera tricks, creepy color distribution, graphic images, and a tense score. They are extremely trippy and surreal. They actually have a dream feel because anything goes and there are no rules. Lopez performance is as good as she looks. She nails the psychotherapist dead on and does a great job in showing the different aspects of her character. Vince is Vince, very cool, very low key, and very real. D'Onofrio will scare you. His Carl Stargher would make even Hannibal Lecter scream for mommy. This guy is more disturbed than ever imagined. He has to be seen to believe it.
Tarsem, with this film, has become one of my favorite directors and I will go see any film with his name on it. The Cell can only be described as a Sci-fi serial killer thriller that's visually disturbing, creepy, and one of the wildest films ever. It runs along the line with Seven for a good serial killer film and Event Horizon for a graphically sick and twisted film. This is best summer movie and the best film I've seen all year.
Director Tarsem Singh uses the well worn serial killer movie to add an amazing visual depiction of the dreamworld. The serial killing is dark and creepy like 'Se7en'. It's been done before, but the dreamscape visuals are a completely different story. It is stunningly beautiful and disturbing, an artistic view on dreamscapes. The style is unlike anything I've seen before. For that, I must give it full marks.
The story of The Cell is not exactly something that is really groundbreaking. In fact, it is basically the same as the story in The Silence of the Lambs. You have a killer in custody and these people have to enter his mind to find a female victim who is currently in danger of losing her life. The only real difference between the foundation of the plots is that in The Silence of the Lambs, you have to enter the mind of a killer to find a different killer as well as his current victim, while in The Cell, you have to enter the mind of a killer to find his own victim. However, despite the unfortunately weak story, The Cell completely revolutionizes the genre of the psychological thriller. None that have ever been made even come close to it.
Also, the film had good direction and was extremely well acted. Vince Vaughn delivers another of his characteristically excellent performances (he was even good as Norman Bates in the pathetic 1998 re-make of Psycho), and even Jennifer Lopez puts forth the second good effort of her career (the other being the great Out of Sight). Nothing can be said of the cinematography in The Cell to give it sufficient credit, it was imaginative and fascinatingly done and is unparalleled by anything ever seen in cinematic history. The Cell is an incredibly well-made film, and it deserves to be recognized.
Did you know
- TriviaVincent D'Onofrio later admitted that his wife refused to sleep in the same bed with him for two weeks after seeing his performance in the movie.
- GoofsAny goofs occurring in the "subconscious" world which the characters enter, do not have to be consistent or conform to realistic physics, as the subconscious is arbitrary, and can create whatever rules it wants.
- Quotes
Miriam: Did we go sailing?
Catherine Deane: Almost! Mocky-Lock showed up.
Miriam: [saying a nursery rhyme] Mocky-Lock is the boogeyman, Mocky-Lock wants me where I am!
Catherine Deane: Mocky-Lock is a pain in the ass.
- Alternate versionsOne scene, where Vincent D'Onofrio hangs on his piercings, masturbating over the dead body of a woman, was not included in the US theatrical or DVD release, but can be seen in the European one. However, the US Blu-ray happens to contain the director's cut of the film, despite not being labelled as such on the packaging and the R-rating listed on the back. The runtime is listed as 109 (the length of the director's cut) which marks the first time the film has been released uncut in the US.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Cell: Deleted Scenes (2000)
- SoundtracksO Sciore Cchiu Felice
Written by Raiz (as G. Della Volpe), Stefano Facchielli (as S. Facchielli), Giovanni Mantice (as G. Mantice), Pier Paolo Polcari and Gennaro Tesone (as G. Tesone)
Performed by Almamegretta (as Alma Me Gretta)
Courtesy of BMG Ricordi S.p.A.
By Arrangement with The RCA Records Label of BMG Entertainment
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $33,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $61,334,059
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $17,515,050
- Aug 20, 2000
- Gross worldwide
- $104,155,843
- Runtime1 hour 47 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39:1
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