As complex as they come, but ultimately rewarding

Rating: 7/10 (28 January 2005)

This is a film which does not pretend to be simple, nor does it try to be straight forward, but stick with it to the end and it is ultimately a pretty satisfying ride, even if certain illogicalities serve to baffle.
This Terry Gilliam effort is a slightly apocalyptic tale of the future, with mankind's majority having been wiped out by some kind of virus. Now underground where the air is breathable, our future selves have developed time travel it seems, and wish to use it to send volunteers back in time in order to somehow figure out how the virus broke out and use that knowledge to escape the confines of their enforced prison.
The always highly personable Bruce Willis is James Cole, one of said volunteers in this future time. He goes back in time but ends up in 1990. Suffice to say his mission to find '12 Monkeys', which seems to be some kind of army responsible for the problems mankind now suffers, goes very wrong and the rest of the film is a convoluted story which requires a good level of concerted concentration from the viewer.
Without question this is a demanding picture. The plot and direction are rich with subtleties and vast amounts of information, and you need to be on your toes to make sense of it all. The biggest problem with it on a technical level is much of the dialogue is viciously mumbled or delivered way too quickly. Lots of it simply passes you by, particularly Brad Pitt's over imposing Jeffrey and his rapid fire diatribe. Willis' Cole doesn't suffer this so badly, fortunately, but the overall audio quality perhaps lacks at times and the clarity of dialogue could be better.
The actual performances are generally pretty good. Willis' Cole is neatly understated, and makes an effective reluctant hero. Madeleine Stowe is fairly convincing as Railly, the psychiatrist who initially takes Cole in as a patient when he arrives in 1990 and babbles inanely about nonsensicals, but Pitt is basically a bit too boisterous and too much as Jeffrey, a mental institute patient Cole meets in the hospital in 1990.
As touched on earlier, the direction is pretty decent, and it helps the story move on reasonably fluidly. It's maybe not quite as immersive as it should be, but it does enough to facilitate the narrative.
Overall it's a decent film really, and if you find yourself interested in philosophy and determinism et al you'll find this particularly satisfying. You'll also get a kick out of it as a time travel movie.
There are certainly a fair few inconsistencies, and things which make no sense, but it does enough to merit inclusion as one of the better films I've seen.