Try to blend in

Rating: 10/10 (13 November 2009)

I'm way behind the times because I've just watched 'Twelve Monkeys' for the first time, 14 years after it was released in the theaters. I went off Terry Gilliam for awhile, can't really say why. I got involved in other stuff, I guess. Anyway, I missed having this masterful film under my belt all these years.
Recently I proclaimed 'Tideland' as having superseded 'Brazil' as his masterpiece. Now, in so short a time, 'Twelve Monkey's has snatched the crown from 'Tideland'. All three of these films are solid evidence of Gilliam being one of the great living directors.
What is most great about this movie, for me, is that I didn't know what was going to happen next. Nothing about it is predictable, even to the very last shot on the airplane to San Francisco.
I began to think this was a modern version of the nightmare classic 'Dead of Night', then, at the very end it turned out to be something quite different. Gilliam has never been a director to explain everything to a supposedly gawp-mouthed public, but relies upon them to be capable of rubbing a couple of brain cells together and figuring it out on their own.
My brain cells were so fuddled until the last scene that I gave up trying to second guess the ending.
It's a frequently depressing movie, showing modern society as corrupt and violent and cynical. It even began to seem preferable that 99% of the world population should be destroyed by a virus, but somehow, when the credits were running I abandoned that dark thought. It's also a very funny movie, thanks to the very subtle performances of Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt and the scientists living in the future, all of whom seem slightly cracked, like the psychiatrists in the present time. Madelyn Stowe is superb throughout, and near the end of the movie becomes a tremendously moving presence.
This story blows holes in all the political-socio bickering that goes on between various factions with their hidden agendas and brings the viewer back to the main point, which is: we are alive and it's a miracle, and that's all that matters... make the most of it.
Brilliant cast, brilliant music, direction, cinematography, art direction... the whole ball of wax.
And Brad Pitt really CAN act when he's working with a great director.
A great film.