INSTINCT by John Sylva (DewyNGale@aol.com) Rating: C+
http://members.aol.com/DeWyNGaLe
Anthony Hopkins could very well be the greatest actor alive today. Cuba Gooding Jr. could very well be the greatest young actor alive today. What happens when you mix then in a film similar to one of Hopkins' classics, Silence of the Lambs?
Primatologist Ethan Powell, played by Anthony Hopkins, has an obsession with the species of gorilla. For a long time, Ethan lived with gorillas in the forests of Africa, abandoning his wife and daughter Lynn, played by Maura Tierney, taking on their behavior, becoming a part of their family. After being found, Powell is accused of clubbing two park rangers to death, but he chooses to remain silent at all times, so therefore he cannot represent himself in court to defend himself. To try to break the barrier, to try and regain the person that Dr. Powell once was, psychiatrist Theo Caulder, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. is sent in to try to put an end to the mystery.
As Theo continues to meet with the strange man, he starts to unravel the mystery behind him. During every visitation between the two, Theo unlocks another secret that start to lead to the question- Is this man really that bad? The two start to become friends of sorts, speaking frequently. Unfortunately, to Lynn's dismay, Ethan refuses to discuss her, and when her name comes up he becomes very angry. Theo is now not only meeting with his main focus, but other patients at the high security Florida prison. The film goes off into a sub-plot about morals, and treating people right, especially in prison. I would have liked it if the writers stuck with the main plot, and not gone off with a much seen plot.
Cuba Gooding Jr. is exceeding any past performance of his in Instinct, but unfortunately, the rest of the cast, plot, and the poor directing by John Turteltaub do not live up to the astonishing performance that he put forward. Believe it or not, Anthony Hopkins actually didn't do all that admirable at his underwritten role. Maybe if the screenplay writer, Gerald Di Pego, had done more with Dr. Ethan Powell than have him sit there and say a word here and there, Anthony Hopkins could have given a much more commendable performance.
Instinct frustrated me with all of my might. It is one of those films that is like a go-cart. It gets going, and then it stops. It slowly gains speed, only to be shut down once again. Instinct is the exact same way. The perfect time to set off something happens all over the place, but nothing happens, except for the scenes comes to and end. Because of this, Instinct never really went anywhere. It ended up being more of a history book than a movie. The moral of the story was an exceptionally brilliant one, but it has been used so many times in other movies, the repetitiveness is getting annoying. Yes, we know by know, Hollywood, that killing animals and judging people is wrong. Can't we move on? I'm not saying this movie is bad for this repetitive moral, I am just saying that filmmakers today should move on to bigger and better things. The plot and characters barely develop, and barely anything is accomplished during the entire film.
When going into Instinct, I expected a thrilling, exciting film with starring two of today's greatest actors. Instead of that, I got a slow drama, copying off of many past films, trying to mix Silence of the Lambs with Patch Adams, and excluding Cuba Gooding Jr., the actors seemed like copycats trying to act like the actors. Is this because of the poor writing and directing, or are these actors really running out of steam? Director Turteltaub tries to use the same sort of style he did in the wonderful film Phenomenon, where everything came pretty slow, and ended up in something great, but in Instinct, it doesn't really end up anywhere.
The Bottom Line- Cuba Gooding Jr. and Anthony Hopkins should have used their instincts, and stayed away from this poorly written drama.
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