Terry Gilliam's Vision of Time Travel

Rating: 8/10 (1 April 2004)

Terry Gilliam succeeds, once again, in making a film full of colorful figures, tight angles and close shots, making it interesting along the away. I must say that I loved many of other Gilliam's films, like `Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' or `The Fisher King' and I was very anxious to see `Twelve Monkeys'. The story is centered mainly in time-travel experience, and how that can be malicious to somebody's life and to his/her surroundings.
Spoilers: The story begins in a near future, when a convict named James Cole (Bruce Willis) is chosen to travel back in time in order to stop the evil army of The Twelve Monkeys. In fact, in the future that the film sets place in, people live under the ground, because there was a lethal virus, released by this army, that destroyed almost the entire population of the Earth, and the survivors decided to hide under the ground, letting the animals rule Earth again. Cole gets sent to the wrong year, being immediately sent to a mental institution where he meats Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) and Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), a crazy patient of the hospital. Terry Gilliam involves us in the story, developing a sense of hope in the viewer, making him have compassion for the cause that Brad Pitt's character fights for, and also develops a romance between Cole and Railly. Finally the story ends, where the director gives his personal touch about what time travel is, after all, about, adding a little bit of irony, tragedy and at the same time, hope... and he does it so well. End of Spoilers.
`12 Monkeys' is marked, without a doubt, by its direction. It happened in other Terry Gilliam's films. He develops the film with his traditional close shots and tight angles with his camera. The acting, I must say, was pretty good, especially Brad Pitt. In fact, I think this was his film of affirmation in the Hollywood community (this was before Se7en) as an actor. Bruce Willis led a steady performance, alongside Madeleine Stowe, who, in my opinion, had better days. The plot isn't that complicated to follow, actually it's very linear with no significant twists and thought provoking acts. (Well come to think of it, time travel is a really serious topic).
Overall, `Twelve Monkeys' is an entertaining film, that almost keeps you in the edge of your seat. Some disappointing and boring parts, others very extraordinary in terms of film making and also very exciting, but nothing out of the ordinary. This isn't really Gilliam's best, nevertheless I recommend it.
PsIKiLL's Rating: 8/10