TWISTER
A movie review by Jeff Graebner
Copyright 1996 Jeff Graebner
I found TWISTER to be an exhilarating and extraordinarily entertaining film, but one that features both major successes and major flaws. As initial reviews are already reflecting, TWISTER is going to be a film that is going to be enjoyed by many but shunned by others. Depending on your tastes and expectations, this is a film that could be either a very enjoyable experience or a frustrating one.
The visuals are absolutely remarkable, frequently presenting the audience with images that are unlike anything ever seen in any movie before. All of the tornado sequences are absolutely convincing and well-designed, with enough variation in the look that the sequences never seem repetitive. This film is certainly another triumph for Industrial Light and Magic.
The very dynamic and exciting sound design also plays a major role in creating the impression that the film is really taking you into the path of a tornado. This is a movie that absolutely >must< be seen in a theater with a large screen and a good sound system. It is available in all three of the 6-track digital sound systems and it is well worth the effort to find a theater using one of them. Mark Mancina's score shifts appropriately from fast paced action cues to occasional full-blown choral pieces used to underscore the majesty of nature. The occasional use of rock songs is sometimes a bit irritating, though, although in at least one sequence it does provide for some clever humor (and a little bit of character definition).
TWISTER is also an incredibly well-shot and well-directed film. As he did with SPEED, Jan De Bont once again shows an incredible flare for creating inventively staged and frantically paced action sequences. The film certainly keeps moving and De Bont is often successful at creating major tension >without< really showing much. My guess is that many viewers will come out of this film thinking that the tornados were visible on-screen much more often than they really were. De Bont has a background as a top action movie cinematographer (shooting such films as DIE HARD and BASIC INSTINCT) and he is teamed here with Jack N. Green (who has shot several of Clint Eastwood's film). The result is one of the best looking action films in a long time.
Unfortunately, the film's plot and characterizations fall way short of the visuals. The story is little more than a series of cliched situations simply used to string together one spectacular storm sequence after another. The script is credited to Michael Crichton and his wife Anne-Marie Martin. Reportedly, such top writers as Joss Whedon and Steven Zaillian did uncredited rewrites. It is surprising that such a top-notch group of writers failed to bring more originality to the script.
The film's plot primarily depend on well-worn cliches of this genre, but it frequently doesn't even bother to play them out completely. The story is centered on husband and wife scientists (Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt) thrown into one last adventure together before signing the divorce papers. Oddly enough, though, the film spends so little time on the relationship that it never even bothers to tell us why they split.
Another element of the plot involves a rival team of scientists (led by Cary Elwes) racing with the heroes to deploy a revolutionary research instrument that was invented by Paxton and Hunt and stolen by Elwes. Again, this rivalry is never fully developed, with the conflicts never amounting to much more than sequences of the two groups passing one another on the highway while chasing down the same tornados.
While the characters are mostly cliches, the actors manage to do a great deal to flesh them out. I'm sure the studio (or actually studios, this is a co-production of Warner Bros. and Universal) felt they were cutting costs by not using big name stars. In reality, it worked out for the best since they ended up with a number of actors that are more talented than famous.
The women in the film fare far better than the men. Helen Hunt, best known for her good work on the TV sitcom "Mad About You", manages to bring a great deal of personality to her character. Through facial expressions and body language, she is able to convey a facination and awe for the natural phenomena that she has dedicated here life to studying. She also conveys much of her feeling for Paxton's character in the same manner. Hunt's acting skill fills in a lot of blanks in the characterization that aren't filled in by the dialog or situations.
An unexpectedly effective performance is given by Jami Gertz as Paxton's new fiance, who ends up being dragged along when he goes after the tornados. This is a character that could have easily been very irritating, but instead Gertz manages to create a very sympathetic and believable character while also serving several necessary functions. In a few scenes she provides some welcome comic relief as a therapist who occasionally is trying to council patients on her cellular phone while driving into the path of a tornado. On other occasions, she provides the required non-expert so that other characters can explain scientific details needed by the audience. Both Gertz and the writers are to be commended for avoiding the easy temptation to make this character unpleasantly unsympathetic.
Bill Paxton's performance is competent, but unlike Hunt and Gertz he is never really able to rise above the writing. The film does leave quite a bit of his motivation somewhat hazy and he doesn't make much of an attempt to fill in the blanks. His chemistry with Hunt is not non-existent, but it isn't spectacular either. Cary Elwes comes off even worse, with a role so thinly drawn that you often forget he is even in the movie.
There are some recognizable faces in the supporting cast, but none are ever allowed to make much of an impression. Hunt and Paxton's team is made up of a number of familiar types, but nobody is ever really allowed to create a distinctive personality. This is something of a disappointment after the unexpectedly well-defined supporting characters in De Bont's SPEED. This difference is particularly well-illustrated by Alan Ruck, who appeared in both films. In SPEED, he had some of the film's best lines in his amusing role of a tourist who was a passenger on the bus. In this film, he is one of the scientists and never has anything more to do than simply shouting road directions into a radio.
In the long run, I found that the flaws in TWISTER really just didn't matter that much. The film is tremendously enjoyable and truly showed me sights that I had never seen before. If you manage to get into tune with the film's strengths, as I did, the weaknesses will ultimately seem to not be that important. -- Jeffrey P. Graebner Columbus, Ohio
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