THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: The third artificial reality film in
about a month is the most stylish and best
photographed with the most coherent plotline. Had
this been the first of the three to be released, it
would be recognized as the best. Roland Emmerich
finally has produced a quality science fiction
film. Rating: 8 (0 to 10), high +2 (-4 to +4)
The year is 1937. As our story opens we follow an elderly man (played by Armin Mueller-Stahl) from his mistress's bedroom to a nightclub. He leaves a letter he has written someone in the care of a bartender (Vincent D'Onofrio) and goes home to his wife. As he lies in bed, suddenly he is propelled into the present. The world of 1937 was a fully functioning world, realistic is every respect but one. It was not actually real but a total computer simulation. And it was a very complete computer simulation. It is not just a virtual reality program creating for one person what could be a three-dimensional world. Each person in the 1937 world has a life and personality of his or her own and continues even when there is nobody to see him. It is an entire virtual world functioning on its own. And our elderly gentleman is Hammond Fuller, "the Einstein of our generation" who created the cyber-world. But tonight Hammond Fuller is going to be murdered and suspicion will fall on his chief programmer Douglas Hall (Craig Bierko). Hall and his friend and coworker Whitney (Vincent D'Onofrio) have worked for Hammond for years and think that they know him fairly well. Now that he is dead, they are not so sure. A daughter (Gretchen Mol) has turned up mysteriously and nobody knew Fuller had a daughter. Discovered also is that Fuller has been repeatedly projecting himself into his created world of 1937. Even Hall had not realized that was possible yet. Now Hall will have to solve a mystery spread across two different worlds.
Part of what makes this film as remarkable as it is is that it comes from Centropolis Film Productions, Roland Emmerich's company. Until now the best thing we have seen coming from Centropolis is their imaginative opening banner. However, the approach for THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR is entirely different from that of STARGATE, INDEPENDENCE DAY, and GODZILLA. Director Josef Rusnak, experienced mostly in European films, has kept the use of special effects modest. Rather than having a visual carnival, this film is instead intelligent and filmed with a great deal of visual style. Cinematographer Wedigo von Schultzendorff's style uses relatively modest special effects. His views of 1937 Los Angeles are lush and gorgeous, generally filmed with a sepia filter to give us a Los Angeles where Philip Marlowe would feel right at home. von Schultzendorff has made his modern-day Los Angeles looks like a giant electric-blue circuit pack. Where the 1937 city has a rich period feel, 1999 feels electronic and electrically charged.
Rather than paying expensive stars, Rusnak has two little known actors, Craig Bierko and Gretchen Mol, in the two top-billed positions. He has saved the familiar faces for supporting roles. His familiar actors are more known for good performances than for powerhouse marquee value. Armin Mueller-Stahl had a long career in Germany and now frequently appears in English-language films including SHINE, THE GAME, and THE X FILES. Vincent D'Onofrio has also been a familiar character actor since his pivotal role as a somewhat retarded Marine recruit in FULL METAL JACKET.
So now we have had released in about a month three films about worlds that seem real but are in reality created in computers. We can see how three different filmmakers have each handled the theme in an action-adventure. This is a rare opportunity. The Wachowskis created in THE MATRIX a future world that was visually imaginative and gave us a plot that to a very great extent was chases, fighting, and martial arts. David Cronenberg's worlds in "eXistenZ" are basically our world, but ones where the line between the totally inanimate and the biological is breaking down. Josef Rusnak has dusted off the 1964 science fiction novel SIMULACRON-3 by Daniel F. Galouye, toned down the Frederik Pohl aspects (in the novel the world are used to predict public opinion) and played up the Philip K. Dick aspects. He has given us a beautiful sepia-toned view of the 1930s to compare with an electrically charged view of the present. Perhaps which you prefer says something about you. THE MATRIX will clearly be the most profitable, but THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR is the one I want in my collection. I rate the latter film 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. (Oh, and when we see a newspaper toward the end, June 21 should be a Friday, not a Monday.)
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1999 Mark R. Leeper
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