Highly enjoyable, but soon forgotten

Rating: Null/10 (3 December 2002)

Directing Minority Report Stephen Spielberg has surely done a very neat job although this film won't be counted among the best films of the decade for its lack in deepness and its faults in the story. Minority Report is highly enjoyable film. It is a rush with the right pace featured by impressive pictures due to sophisticated special effects and talented acting. But it leaves you off with the thought that, given this topic, somebody could have worked out a much more powerful story.
Tom Cruise does a wonderful job in giving live to the character of Detective John Anderton. He's never overdoing his role trying to add depth and emotion at any scene where it is not justified. He rarely shows a lot of mimic except for a little smile when he speaks to the projection of his son projected by a futuristic beamer. Mostly he's just doing - not acting. Due to the story Tom Cruise doesn't have to show an inner struggle in his character. There's no scene that gives a lot of insight. This is pretty much typical for the films Tom Cruise does.
Samatha Morton in the role of Agatha has a much more complicated task to fulfil. An absent minded girl that can see murders in the future is a lot harder to get on the screen than a determined hero only facing the threats from the outside. But she succeeds even better than Tom Cruise. All in all the acting has been wonderful.
Thanks to Spielberg the actors have been set in the right place and the right light which adds a lot of power to their scenes. Spielberg has also done a very good job showing the dream like predictions of Agatha as some short blurred and distorted film scenes. It's wonderful to watch the actors trying to complete the puzzle given only a short amount of time.
As I haven't had insight to the screenplay I can only guess which sections are probably made up by Scott Frank and the author of the short story Phillip K. Dick. The most brilliant scene, in my opinion, is right at the beginning when Tom Cruise directs the concert of dreamlike visions coming from the Agatha and the twins. The screenwriter might have used an ordinary Pc Screen and a mouse or just a big LCD Screen. But he decided to have big transparent, futuristic screen. Thus not only giving us a sense in which time the story is set and leaving the receiver somehow puzzled, but also showing Detective Anderton as director of destiny. He has total control over the pictures and vision on any murder that has not yet been commited. The way the input device for the screen is designed forces him to do very visual gestures that otherwise would have seemed exaggerated, although the fit in.
Another sequence worth mentioning is the replacement of his eyes. At that point Stephen Spielberg had the chance to present the opposite, the negative vision of the future. The doctor is a criminal and his nurse is no better. But in this scene Spielberg fails to set the miserable mood that would have been appropriate for that scene. The scenes where Detective Anderton drinks radioactive water, eats a rotten sandwich and almost swallows outdated milk seems more like slapstick. These actions are presented so fast that they turn the disgust experienced by the viewer in the scene before (when the eyes are prepared to be removed) in a relief in laughter. If intended that way the film fails here miserably to create any vision of the future. There's no mood or atmosphere to be experienced like you could do in Blade Runner. It's just another sacrifice to the rush.
Instead of talking about every single special effect and kind of choices in framing and presentation of scene I want to point out the overall pace of the story. Right from the beginning the receiver is set in a rollercoaster. Sound effects and visual effects, the lack of time for action is driving the story forward all the time.
There are hardly any scenes to develop traits in characters. The only thing we learn about the protagonist is that he is suffering from the lost of his son. Furthermore we are informed about the relationship to his ex-wife and the reason why she left him - but that's not a real character trait. So the loss of his son and family is pretty much it. Not a lot. Other characters are only used in their typical function. The protagonist's ex-wife has nothing more to do than to state that she loves her ex-husband and that she only separated from him because he reminds her of her late son. Director Lamar Burgess only serves the function as a mentor until he is used as a new antagonist. Danny Witwer, the primarily antagonist, has not much to do or to say. As there is no colorful protagonist, the antagonist can't give him much contrast. But you might also say it the other way round.
Basically the film finds his appeal in its pace and rhythmic timing. I believe that is why the story gets weak when present catches up with the prediction. From that point the story is dull. The overall purpose of the rush is fulfilled. The pre-crime system is proved wrong. Freedom of choice has prevailed. Somehow the rest of the story is like the clearing work after a party. The system must be destroyed and somebody must die at the final climax and Anderton has to reunite with is ex-wife to have the western family model again. At the end the film loses his beauty of rush and turns out to be a predictable standard North American film with flat characters. Even the special effects can't save the film from going down now.
When the story turns, it is the first time the receiver has the time to think. He may has not yet noticed that he followed the standard narrative pattern with Hollywood accuracy. But then he is left alone without any overwhelming pictures and without speed. He's left without any intellectual thought about the topic of pre-crime justice. There is so much provocative in this topic, even spoiling up some basic beliefs in the American Constitution. There is so much controversy in it. None of those opportunities has been explored by the film. The topic rather has been misused to market a weak story in a high-quality Hollywood production.