DARK CITY (R)
Directed by Alex Proyas Running Time: 103 minutes Originally Released: February 27, 1998
Reviewed by E. Benjamin Kelsey
* * (out of four)
There are movies that are carried completely on the weight of character development and interaction (WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE?), and there are movies completely carried by brilliant special effects (INDEPENDENCE DAY). When the two actually collide (CONTACT), it is a rare masterpiece. DARK CITY is a visual movie with a very intriguing idea - unfortunately this city is so dark, the idea can't see where it's going.
Imagine waking up one day, your memory altogether erased and a dead prostitute in your room. Like a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde story, DARK CITY begins with such a premise as John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens in a dingy bathtub with no recollection of how he got there. Although John can not remember his own identity, there are several people who do seem to know he is. For one, there is the police, in particular, Inspector Frank Bumstead (William Hurt) who oversees the case of mysterious murders for which John is the main suspect. Secondly, there is John's wife, Emma (Jennifer Connelly), a lounge singer who's affair supposedly drove John away. Thirdly, there is the mad scientist like Dr. Daniel Poe Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland), a man whose intentions are as ambiguous as the time of day (which in "Dark City" is *very* uncertain). Last but not least, we have a group of bald stark-white guys in black attire known by names such as Mr. Hand, Mr. Sleep, Mr. Quick, Mr. Wall, etc. Note: even though they're all bald, there isn't a Mr. Clean.
As things very tediously slowly unravel, we discover that these "men", simply known as "strangers", have been putting the entire world to sleep every time the clock strikes midnight. They then proceed to use supernatural powers they refer to as "tuning" to reshape the city. By joint concentration, the group of non-human beings are able to construct elaborate apartment buildings in a matter of seconds, but when everyone awakes from their frozen state, nobody seems to notice the world around them has transformed into a new, seemingly unrecognizable environment. John becomes the exception to the rule, never falling under the sleeping spell and fully aware that the city is anything but natural. He also has the ability to tune, something he isn't fully aware of but something the "strangers" find very threatening to their ascendancy. With everyone seemingly against him, John finds himself on the run from a darkly transcendental and claustrophobic realm.
Discovering this fact alone takes way too much time. For a very long while, the audience is left completely in the dark (pun intended) about any sort of plot. We follow John around the city, watching bizarre occurrences take place around him as though they were common everyday circumstances. However, this is true in Dark City, where everybody's heard of Shell Beach but nobody knows how to get there, and the sun is in everybody's memories but hauntingly never present in present time. It sounds highly intriguing, and had the audience been introduced to the "why" questions without dallying so long on the "what" questions, DARK CITY could've made for a richly absorbent piece of gothic- psychological thriller-sci-fi. Had director / co-writer Alex Proyas bothered to delve as deep into John's psychosis as he did the futuristically macabre imagery, the result would've been an intense and innovative mind trip. Sadly, without character development or the slightest attempt to lure the audience in (instead of just confusing us endlessly), such a grand project was never realized.
Hurt's not looking up this year with such dreary performances in this and LOST IN SPACE, but at least here his heavily subdued toning blends right in. Sewell and Connelly are also inordinately ordinary, and Sutherland's Igor impression is highly laughable, though never intentionally so. In the drab settings, a lesser ebullience can be expected, but when performances become lethargic, it is very hard to remain interested. Proyas, whose THE CROW has developed somewhat of a cult following, is trying to be too artistically trippy, and there seems to be a lost, deep meaning about humanity that wants to come thru but never does surface. Any attempts at "real" substance fail embarrassingly. With so much potential packed into such a misguided film, one must give DARK CITY two stars for effort, but a big thumbs down on the recommendation level.
April 09, 1998
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