Elegant, thrilling and visionary piece of sci-fi

Rating: Null/10 (6 June 2004)

With overtones of Blade Runner very evident here, Dark City seems derivative at first glance. Look deeper though and you'll see a movie which stands alone in what it achieves.
Rufus Sewell is John Murdoch, who wakes alone in a bath with no memory of who he is. He discovers certain strange clues in the house he's in and sets about trying to remember the past from them.
There are, however, strange looking people called the Strangers after him who appear to not be of this world, while a sinister doctor seems to be attempting to help him from afar.
On further investigation he begins to discover the city is hiding a huge secret, and people are being manipulated in unimaginable ways by the Strangers, but for some reason he's not amongst them and the Strangers want to know why they can't affect him.
Not only the people are being modified, but the city is too, and every so often everyone falls asleep while their minds are messed with and their city is changed, something they're oblivious to.
One clue drives Murdoch on though - a postcard from a place called Shell Beach, but no one seems to know the way though they know of the place.

Add to this highly complex plot his estranged wife who he doesn't remember and who hurt him badly in some way, and the fact he is wanted for the murder of 6 prostitutes with William Hurt's Detective Bumfield hot on his trail and you have a very complex sci-fi thriller with epic overtures.
Dark City is pretty well acted, without being spectacular. Overacting is rife in places (Particular from Kiefer Sutherland as Doctor Shreber), but it suits the environment and setting well.
Sewell is convincing as the baffled Murdoch, and makes the part his own with a level of charisma which seems surprising.
The plot moves thick and fast, with nary a moment where things slow down - this keeps us glued without managing to confuse us.
If you like sci-fi you'll like this, and if you don't and want an apparent action-packed thriller with psychological overtones you'll also get a kick out of it.
Great story, and well realised.