Confusing, but after a while it comes together, extremely well

Rating: 10/10 (29 April 2000)

When I first saw Twelve Monkeys, I felt like saying "WHAT?! I was also twelve years old (odd coincidence), and I was so wrapped up into the atmosphere of the picture, this very worn-in future and grungy, underground style of science fiction. Years later, after having seen the film several times more, it sinks in a bit clearer, though the mystery around it, a sort of questioning that is posed more for the viewer to figure things out, stays around. It's one of the truly challenging works of not-entirely-classifiable science fiction films to come out of the 'mainstream' Hollywood in many years. It deals with madness, time, and how we chose to have our destinies stay the same or change or do anything to find out about ourselves, and it's done in such an entertaining fashion that it's got layers to it. It is a tale of a man (Bruce Willis) who is sent from 2029 to 1996 to stop the end of the world, which will take place very soon (a possible plausible thing considering the amount of possible ways to destroy the world through chemicals, especially towards the end of the 20th century).
But, it doesn't start off there; first we get a series of scenes set in a mental hospital in 1990, with Brad Pitt's character as the deranged wildcat in the hospital. There's even a love story- in a manner of speaking- that unfolds between Willis and Madeline Stowe's character that is so unconventional that it is hard to find where the tension stops and where the real compassion begins. What ensues is strange yet intriguing; we're sure up to a point of where this might lead, but the final revelation still ranks among Gilliam's best. Disturbing and yet some great entertainment that doesn't sit like a lump for its audience to chew. The sparks and gears have to work in your head during this one, as layers get stripped and you have to piece it back together once it's done. But it's done in such a way that is totally apart from pretension. For art-film viewers the sight of Willis and Pitt might be a bit jarring, and likewise for the mainstream action-adventure crowd the amount of intense and odd camera moves will seem one-of-a-kind. For me, it's one of the best films of 1995, even the 90s.