Viewed in
2006, 2011
Formats
DVD, HDTV
Premise
In the future, humans are nearly wiped out by a virus. Bruce Willis returns to the 1990's to figure out what happened.
Loved
Creative time-travel story, Madeleine Stowe.
Liked
Acting and Terry Gilliam's refrained directing.
Thoughts
Intriguing, intense, and stylish.
Unless most time-traveling movies, this one had the interesting twist in that Willis kept getting sucked back into the future, reappearing in a different year. I liked this elaborate tapestry of time and space that affected Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt's characters. In addition, it played with themes of sanity/insanity. About halfway through, it did its best Vertigo impression of flipping the film upside-down and spiraling into psychological madness. Sadly, watching this a second time around did not have as strong an impact as before.
Director Gilliam did an excellent job of letting the story take the reins, and injecting his visual flair at the right moments. It was trippy without being nonsensical. His vision was inspired, with anachronistic futuristic dwellings to trash-laden landscapes of 1990's inner cities. His choice of using traditional French music as score was odd, but it made sense as a shout out to the original French film, La Jetee.
The acting was top-notch. Willis put in another excellent performance as the battered and bruised time-traveler. I loved Stowe very much here as the intelligent and sympathetic psychiatrist. Pity that she practically fell off the face of the Earth after this. Brad Pitt's madness-driven acting felt a bit forced, but you can never be too over-the-top in a Gilliam flick. 1960's Batman fans should get a kick out of Frank Gorshin as Stowe's colleague.
I highly recommend this engrossing time-traveling tale. I'm not sure if it made complete sense, but it was a hell of ride. One of Gilliam's and Willis' best.
What I would change
Nothing.
Random
Unintentionally funny moment now when Willis uttered the line: "All I see are dead people."
