Now, I think many of you know that I am not a fan of cop shows, though I occasionally, occasionally, make exceptions for Law & Order: Criminal Investigations. Mostly because of today's Fan-Boy Icon, Vincent D'Onofrio. Now, while most of us know him for L&O, he has two other pretty iconic roles, one greater than the other. First, he was "Private Pyle" in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (1987). Second, he was in Tarsem Signh's The Cell (2000). The Cell is the one I want to talk about here, because it is a fairly underrated film, even by me.The thing about The Cell is it is a beautifully done movie, directed by Tarsem Singh, but the story and some of the acting is a tad lackluster. The reason to watch it are for the visuals and D'Onofrio's performance. He plays crazy with a lot of zeal, and playing a warped serial killer might be his wheelhouse. He has great body language, which he even adds to the Law & Order role, where he plays a cop who is a tad unbalanced. In The Cell he really gets to play this up, taking on cartoon-ish, malevolent, and child-like aspects. He is at his best in the dream-world portion of the film, where his character is set up as an evil king. If you have not seen The Cell, check it out, or if you saw it and did not care for it, give it another look. The ending falls apart a bit, but for the most part it is very enjoyable.
11 comments:
One of the most stunningly visual movies I've ever seen...it blew me away. Your review is very accurate. Vincent was at his creepy best and I am looking forward to seeing him in 'Chained' due out next year. He portrays a serial killer and says it is the darkest character he has ever done. We'll see.
Wow- He was Pyle?!?! I'm going to have to check out The Cell...
He also portrayed Robert E. Howard in The Whole Wide World, which is worth checking out.
Good call, Mitchell, one of my favorites of his.
Nantz I hope you have seen The Fall by Singh. Really beautiful, and a fun story to boot.
Keri I did not recognize that he was Pyle for years.
Mitchell I will have to look for that.
His acting on Law and Order CI was a gift to me. He and Catherine Erbe had one of the great partnerships in all of television history. He could thrill me with his genius or break my heart all at the same time. His episodes with actress Olivia D'Abo playing Nicole Wallace was pure brilliance from both of them. This guy is always great.
The Fall and The Cell are great movies visually. I just wish they had scripts to match their epic visuals. I found the same thing with Singh's newest Immortals.
I can't wait to read your review of A DIRTY SHAME which is one of my favorite John Waters movies of all time. There are some very rude but very funny scenes. My kind of comedy with that touch of Rush Myers sweetness.
Darius, I have been meaning to watch 'The Fall' because of all the comparisons in cinematography to 'The Cell'. Definitely will do that. I think you will really like TWWW.
@Kal - I did talk about it a bit here, but may give it a second look. I did not realize at the time that it was NC-17, despite not being graphic. A few F Bombs and some full-frontal male, but otherwise pretty tame. As for L&O:CI, he was rather refreshing for the cop show genre with all the weird posturing and controlled chaos.
@Nantz - The Fall is very good. My old review here. Hah, when I saw "TWWW" I immediately thought "The Way We Were" :-)
If you are a Vincent fan "Happy Accidents" is definately one to check out. It's a love story with Marisa Tomei! oh and Time Travel thrown in. It's actually one of those movies you watch and think 'how have I never heard of this great movie?'
Cool. I will have to look for those.
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