Instinct

A friend and I saw a sneak preview of INSTINCT last night. The film stars Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr. and looked like a thriller about an anthropologist who went to Africa and wound up living with gorillas instead of just studying them. It was much more.

Hopkins' character, Dr. Ethan Powell, is accused of the murders of several Africans. Having been held in a Rwandan prison for a year, he's then extradited to the U.S. and put in a lovely prison in the insane department. Donald Sutherland (looking mighty fine!) is a noted professor of psychiatry at a nearby University, and Gooding is his pet resident, Dr. Theo Calder. When Sutherland's department is asked by the feds to do a psych evaluation, Gooding as Calder researches the case and begs to be allowed to do the work. Calder has been shown at this point to be a brilliant, ambitious resident with a sterling career ahead, and so Sutherland gives him the chance.

What develops from there is a wonderfully written, exquisitely acted story, interweaving the sessions with Powell and Calder with the life of the prison and its insane inmates. Further woven into the fabric is the story of what happened to Powell in Africa. In the African scenes, Stan Winston's work on the apes is incredibly realistic and never cartoonish. Danny Elfman's score (I don't always like Elfman, but did enjoy the Batman score) is also a beautiful accompaniment to these scenes, though a little heavy in other parts of the film.

It's hard to explain the refreshingly intelligent and moving and thoughtful script of this film. Issues such as what is really civilized behavior, the pack as family mentality, and humanity vs. inhumanity are explored with depth but never with a heavy hand. The performances of Hopkins and Gooding are exceptional. Gooding did a great job with the other film I'd seen him in, JERRY MAGUIRE, but the depths of emotion and the layered aspects of his performance in INSTINCT are incredible.

My friend said after we'd left the theater last night that this came very close to being a Great Film. And she's right. It had a great script and brilliant performances by all, fully realized characters (even the secondary ones), good plot. Where it falls a little, I think, is in the direction. Jon Turteltaub is a competent director who has done films I've enjoyed, such as WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING and PHENOMENON. But in this case, with everything it had going for it, Turteltaub didn't hold the strings tight. The pacing is off in a few places, and a whiff of a subplot involving Gooding's character in a romance with Maura Tierney as Hopkins' daughter fails because you can feel it waffling. Should we leave this subplot in or pull it out? Since they couldn't decide, it leans both ways from scene to scene. This speaks to me of weakness in the director.

But INSTINCT is a very, very good film. Highly recommended. And those of you who are prone to weep, bring your hankies.

This film really surprised me. I mean REALLY. I mean I knew that Hopkins, Sutherland and Gooding Jr. were good actors and I'd heard about the film, but I was believing it would be nothing special. I WAS wrong. It had been very long, since I had last seen a film, with a message, a meaning and a higher value than entertainment, but this one is it. Maybe it's just because I study psychology, but I really enjoyed this film. It will take away your illusions. Highly recommended.

8 out of 10

Professor Ethan Powell is returned to America by Ugandan police – for years he has been living wild in the mountains and was captured after killing several men. He is brought to America for trial but first must undergo a psychological evaluation. Smelling a best seller and a career boost, Theo Caulder takes the case and enters the prison. However his journey into Powell's mind is not as easy or as straightforward an experience as he had imagined.

I can't remember last when I watched a film that tried to be so many things at the same time. Instinct is one of those films to me – it does psychological drama, thriller, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Gorilla's in the Mist. The major failing of this aim is that it doesn't manage to do very well with any of these and ends up feeling like a hotchpotch of half ideas. The plot is stretched from the very start – Powell opens up to Caulder with alarming ease (and out of nowhere) and things become increasingly half-explained from then on. The central part of the story that is meant to keep us hooked (why did Powell kill those men?) is clear from the opening 5 minutes (or even from a brief plot summary!) so that drama is all but absent.

Backing this up is the subplot that sees Powell caring for and liberating the brutalised inmates in the prison in a series of scenes that seeming arise from nothing to the extent that I was left wondering where all that came from! Likewise the interview scenes lack any real tension of their own. The main (or at least I think it was) strand of Powell living among the gorillas for years is probably the most interesting but again is a little silly. He never looks like he has slept rough or had anything other than a full nutritious diet the whole time – it certainly doesn't fit with his early description as a wild man! Having said that, the final scene in the jungle flashback is very moving and intense and is worth seeing despite the rest of the film.

Anyone who thinks that the film isn't lazily written and poorly delivered will only need to see the final shot of the film to agree that clearly something's weren't thought through and that this story needed more focus and strength. With Sir Hopkins in the lead I had hoped he would bring more to the role, and, in fairness, he tries hard, but his interview scenes are a little too hammy and his `wild man' is too civilised and polite after an initial opening. Gooding Jr's character has to cover several of the genres and he struggles as a result of this. He never really convinced me in his role and is overshadowed by even a poor Hopkins. The support cast is not great -–the prisoners are nothing more than clichés who fill out the film and do nothing to add to the credibility (or lack thereof) of the plot.

Overall this film has moments that work and moments that don't. It isn't that it is a bad film, it simply doesn't work together as one story. The sad fact is that the central story is not dramatic or detailed enough to fill the running time, so lots of clutter has been added which fills it out but also drags it down unnecessarily.

Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins) A brilliant anthropologist, committed to an asylum for the criminally insane after committing murder.

Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding Jr.) a brilliant young psychologist, volunteers to examine Ethan to try and understand what exactly went on.

Theo's driven ambition pushes him into the psyche of a madman where he risks his own life to peel away the layers and unveil the man behind the madness.

A perfect cast and terrific story make this a very tense and thrilling ride through the mind of a madman, who may just hold the secret to remove the illusions we all have.

8/10 If you bore easily then leave well alone.

I think this is a GREAT movie. It has a story line that while not complicated, is very different. And it is a great story that is very facinating. There were a number of great character acts too. There are a number of characters in the insane prison from a number of "unknown" actors that really give the movie added personality. It made me want to look up these actors to see what else they do. The scenes with the gorillas were tastefully done, with no over kill that made it look somewhat artificial, which so many movies tend to do. For example, 'Greystoke' starring Christofer Lambert as Tarzan, was an attempt at realism, but had the apes portraying some very human like relationships. Not so with 'Instinct'. The only thing I found spoilt the movie a bit was to suggest that an American insane prison setup would find it necessary, even encouraged, for inmates to be violent to each other. This ridiculous aspect brought the quality of the movie down a notch or two. The relationship between Hopkins and Gooding was fantastic. And the intense scene between them involving 'duck tape' really brought forth the message the movie was giving. SO, why is the movie more well known??? I guess the movie promoters just didn't do their job very well. OH WELL!!! Movie gets 8/10 from me.