Instinct (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com Member: Online Film Critics Society
*1/2 out of four
"Not far from here there's a fence. On the other side of the fence is freedom. That gorilla will never try to get to it." Starring Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr., Donald Sutherland, Maura Tierney. Rated R.
Instinct is the kind of movie that inexperienced moviegoers will undoubtedly label as "powerful" or "touching". I have a name for it myself: "gross". This is the sort of film where somebody stands up to a bully, the bully looks at the "rebel" threateningly, about to hurt him, and then everyone else whom the bully has heretofore controlled stands up too. How that scene is still present in so many movies today appalls me: aren't present day moviegoers beyond being "inspired" by something like that? This is one example (there are actually some more in Instinct alone) of filmmakers insulting the audience's intelligence.
Instinct's plot is brimming with potential: World-renowned anthropologist Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins) disappeared for two years whilst doing research in the jungles of Africa. He was found and is coming back to the United States a convicted killer; he murdered to African policemen who were allegedly trying to capture him. After committing a few more brutal acts of violence in the airport, the authorities stick him in a prison's "psychotics ward". Assigned to do an evaluation on Powell is a bright (or so we are told) young psychiatrist Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding Jr.).
Caulder starts out doing the evaluation merely for the purpose of furthering his career. Of course (and no mainstream filmmaker would ever have it any other way) he starts really caring for Powell and he becomes fixed on helping Powell prove that he is not a psychotic and that he should not be in prison. And then there's the inevitable "heartless meanie" character, in the form of Donald Sutherland who plays Caulder's mentor. He cares for Caulder but does everything he can to discourage him from helping Powell.
Let's get one thing straight: Dr. Theo Caulder is the most blatantly incompetent psychiatrist I have ever seen, on screen or off. Any good shrink will listen to what his patient has to say no matter the subject because any good shrink will learn a great deal about his patient that way. Not good old Theo. No, he asks purposefully pointed questions and when Powell dares to venture to another subject Caulder says "We need to talk about this right now." This is a flaw only in the sense that it detracts from Instinct's already dubious credibility; unfortunately it's also the least of its problems.
Director Jon Turteltaub, who made the delightful John Travolta vehicle Phenomenon as well as the surprisingly above-par Cool Runnings decided to make this movie so shamelessly sentimental that, contrary to what this movie's promotion would have you believe, it has much more in common with Patch Adams than with The Silence of the Lambs. It's not the kind of sentimentality that can almost bring tears to your eyes (What Dreams May Come aptly demonstrated that) but the kind that brings vomit up your esophagus (excuse the graphic depiction). It aims to "inspire" rather than to touch hearts. As Yoda would say, inspire it does not.
It is the ultimate sign of futility when a screenwriter (the very experienced Gerald Di Pego) has to resort to literally telling the audience a movie's story. Indeed, somewhere in the beginning of Instinct, one of the characters actually reads aloud the film's plot to another character. This, like the instance I mentioned in the first paragraph of this review, is a horrid insult to our intelligence. I am forced to wonder whether Turteltaub and Di Pego did not think that we could figure out what Instinct is about simply from regular conversation.
I think that Anthony Hopkins is one of the greatest screen actors, and he chews the scenery in this movie, brilliant as ever. Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. on the other hand is dreadful. His performance is at least part of what makes his character seem so incapable of being a shrink. I liked the guy in Jerry Maguire as well as in As Good as it Gets but here he fails to project any shred of credibility or real feeling.
I love animals, and Instinct's prominent Save The Gorillas/Live in Harmony With Nature theme is certainly something I could sympathize with. However this movie's execution is completely unacceptable. Tone down the violence and this will be a chick flick. ©1999 Eugene Novikov
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