Easy to Forgive the Flaws

Rating: 9/10 (1 July 2002)

At the beginning of Minority Report, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) and his SWAT team converge on the house of a soon-to-be murderer. They run into a problem when they discover that all the houses look alike. Thanks to some clever observation, however, the day is saved, and the streets of a future Washington D.C. are safe once again.
Such is the world and the cleverness of Minority Report. The year is 2054, and the city's "pre-crime" initiative, on the brink of becoming a nation-wide program, has successfully thwarted every murder attempt for the past six years. The system works by having detectives analyze precognitive images that have been extracted from the minds of psychic people (called precogs). When the precogs predict a murder committed by Anderton, the detective sets out on a journey to find the information, the minority report, that could prove his innocence. His former teammates, led by a skeptical representative of the Attorney General, set out on a journey to capture him.
Minority Report is visually dazzling, mentally engaging, and emotionally interesting without ever being manipulative. Action scenes are suspenseful and smart, never resorting to cliche. And in the hands of a brilliant director (Steven Spielberg) and a gifted actor (Cruise), this screenplay (based on a short story by Philip K. Dick) never lets up.
Unfortunately, it does occasionally let down. Take the opening scene, for example. The detectives have the name of the perpetrator who is about to commit the murder in his own house. Yes, the deduction method used to determine the house is clever, but do they not have this man's address? Could they not just look at the number on the door?
Such moments of "hey, wait a minute" distractions are few, but that makes them all the more annoying. Minority Report is a very smart film, making the less intelligent segments that much more noticeable.
Another example would be the fact that after John Anderton is pegged as a murderer-to-be and flees for his life, this highly secure government facility doesn't even bother to lock down his access, allowing him the opportunity to kidnap one of the precogs in an effort to clear his name. One would think heads would roll for this oversight, but that would require the ability to believe it in the first place.
There's also the matter of technology that seems too advanced for fifty years hence, but that's a smaller matter since technology's advancements are not always linear or predictable. And unlike most other sci-fi thrillers, the technology sets up some cool stunts but otherwise plays no part in the plot. This is not a special effects movie; the plot would be as enjoyable with a budget of $50,000. That's because, for all its idiosyncrasies, Minority Report never forgets about its characters. John Anderton's tortured past is more than just a plot device; it's an integral part of the story, as are the histories of other major players.
You will need to be somewhat forgiving as you watch the film, but given its cleverness and its overall fun, only the most curmudgeon moviegoer could refuse to let the minor points slide.
***1/2, 9/10, A-