Weirdness Of Gilliam Comes Alive

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2016)

One of the functional idiosyncrasy that makes "Twelve Monkeys" so provocative is that the entire movie is that the essential complexities is remarkably flabbergasting. Our enigmatic tale is set in the year 2035 and about over 98% of the human population has been expunged by a mysterious devastation. The densely populated humans has now took residents underground underground a relatively uninhibited premise beneath the Earth's surface. Researchers believe that the key component for humans to regain their population they must retrace the roots to the year 1996, the pivotal year when all the turmoil began. They send a volunteer named James Cole (Bruce Willis) on a dangerous initiative to go back to where all the trouble commenced to look for vital information to help correct the reason for the sudden event that lead to the decline of the human population.
This isn't the first outing director Terry Gilliam has when dabbling with the Utopian future. In 1985, Gilliam has orchestrated his eccentric views with the movie "Brazil". He still utilizes with bizarre futuristic mechanical apparatuses here and the surreal visuals are surely like to caress your intrigue with along with baroque-styled cartoon puns that are reminiscent to his Monty Python days.
With the personal assistance from director of photography Roger Pratt and production designer Jeffrey Beecroft, once again Gilliam has once again saturated our audience with another cryptic dimension with freaky metallic contraptions customized to enthrall you and freak you out at the same time.
But what Gilliam does that differs from other directors is that he juxtaposes his rapturous obsession for quirkiness, adventure and the playful talent for narratives. Taken as a wink to the Jeunet and Caro film "City of Lost Children", the visual exhibited here is visually fearsome along with a very gritty story.
Cole feels that the he's been transported 6 years prior the devastation, in search of the Army of Twelve Monkeys, a faction of scientists from the future who has revealed an intoxicating virus that led to the current problems. Cole ends up institutionalized in a psychiatric ward under the supervision of Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe). When she listens to his assignment, she thinks he's lost it and demands to get medicated. He manages to escape when get warped back in time thanks to his futuristic keepers.
Not completely defeated, Cole manages to seek answers from an inmate named Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), a schizophrenic individual who also is an animal protector. Transported to 1996, Cole finds that Jeffrey's father Dr. Goines (Christopher Plummer) is a well- renown virologist who's been experimenting with animals. When Dr. Railly decides that Cole is not insane, decides to go with assisting him on his mission.
During Cole's missionary duty, the memories of his childhood seem to haunt him for reasons unknown until the end keeping us guessing by scriptwriters David and Janet Peoples we come to the conclusion that futuristic scientists are often misguided with what happened in our time frame.
Like many of Gilliam's other films it never feels like any of the films he makes look like recycled from other films which is to me the highest compliments. But as a specialist n his respected craft, Gilliam knows how to really connect quite well with his respected performers. Pitt who at the time was becoming an up and coming star showed more exuberance here than his incredible supporting performance in "Thelma and Louise". As Goines, we can see Pitt was starting to show that he was more primed for more leading roles.
It was a bit of a shame that Madeline Stowe was not offered very much to here. She has truly a lot to offer here, but has been relegated to playing a very minor role when yet here talent is beyond the surface to her performance in other roles.
The star Bruce Willis is just as focused and intense like he is in his "Die Hard" films. Cole is the perfect decoy who's lost in the life that was given to him. He was born at a time where being alive was not good timing. He can still be witty and charming, but he's still a pariah which makes him apologetically a victim and a hero who's yearning for our sympathy.