Not Great. But not Bad.

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2006)

I have Netflix to thank for seeing this movie; I'd never heard of it before it popped up on my "Recommended" list after I rented another sci-fi DVD. Of course I'm watching it more than seven years late and I don't ever recall seeing it gracing local movie theatres here in California, but then most Australian movies seem to pass us by. I'm not sure why. Perhaps they could do with a new Australian Film Marketing Office? I'm a long time science fiction fan, dating back more years than I care to admit, to when I was a teenager and discovered Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein and the strange but talented Philip K Dick. I'll even admit to being a closet Trekkie, so I can safely say I've seen an awful lot of sci-fi over the years, of various degrees of quality. And I think this is a pretty fair movie.
Not faultless by any means. But reasonably good. A man wakes up in the bath with blood on his head and nothing for company except a goldfish, and he can't remember how he got there. He's not suffering the after effects of a three day bender but he IS wanted for a series of brutal murders, and he has an attractive, devoted wife he can't recall. Outside it is always night-time, and apparently he's been missing quite a while. The city is run by shadowy aliens (all male by the look of them) and he holds the key to their defeat because he is immune to their control. The movie addresses the usual sci-fi questions of reality, memory and perception, and is based on the fairly unoriginal idea that life on earth (or in this case, a city), is really the large scale experiment of a superior life form, with human beings taking on the role of lab rats. But the script is mostly well written and intelligent, and approaches the "alien experiment" idea in an original way. The overall design is suitably dark and brooding, reminiscent of a Holodeck reconstruction of 1940s America, with everything just a little too perfect and clean to be real. I suspect the production designer may have been a closet Trekkie too.
Blade Runner meets The Truman Show came to mind. This is a plot and character driven science fiction film, where the effects enhance rather than overwhelm the story, so it gets my vote. I love sci-fi and fantasy but despise the way special effects are so often used as substitutes for decent writing and story development.
My main gripe would be the sound track, closely followed by the costume design (yes really!). Why do the producers of sci-fi, (on film and TV), always seem to think we need a continuous and portentous sound track to guide us through the plot? I found the sound track intrusive. Subtle it is not. And my gripe with the costumes? Well how often have we seen aliens garbed in high collars as if they all have spinal damage and need neck braces? I live with the hope that higher intelligence will lead to more imaginative taste in clothing. The alien dialogue was a bit of a cliché  if these guys can manipulate reality and matter, they can probably learn to speak English properly too, and Keifer Sutherland's performance was a little irritating. His breathy and stilted delivery of his lines had me wondering if he was supposed to be asthmatic? I kept hoping someone would pass the poor guy an inhaler. I enjoyed Jennifer Connelly's performance immensely, and I thought William Hurt very good.
But good sci-fi is such a rarity that I'm willing to ignore the faults. Thanks Netflix! Keep the recommendations coming!