It's not all it could be...but it's a lot

Rating: Null/10 (26 June 2002)

Many critics are hailing Steven Spielberg's new sci-fi thriller "Minority Report" as his best film in years, a return to action-escapist form for a filmmaker who has basically split the last decade between "Jurassic Park" films and more weighty historical dramas. The critical hyperbole is only half-warranted. "Minority Report" does not represent either a storytelling pinnacle or a visual breakthrough for the filmmaker, as many viewers and film pundits are claiming. However, it is still a swift, compelling entertainment with a lot more brains than most action pictures racketing around the multiplex these days.
It's 2054, and John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is chief officer of the Washington D.C. Department of PreCrime. This organization uses the psychic visions of three pre-cognitive humans (known as Pre-Cogs) to arrest murderers before they even have the chance to commit their crimes. Although the Pre-Cops have done such an effective job of reducing D.C.'s murder rate that the federal government is thinking of taking the program national, there is a lot of criticism of the department's work. Many feel that arresting criminals before they've become criminals is the same as convicting innocent people, and that the Pre-Cogs, who spend their whole lives floating in a nutrient tank hooked up to computer screens, have been reduced to dehumanized information conduits. Meanwhile, Anderton's got problems of his own. He's still haunted by memories of his son, who was kidnapped and likely murdered before PreCrime made such events a thing of the past, and he eases his pain with liberal doses of drugs. A Justice Department suit, Witwer (Colin Farrell) has begun sniffing around in Anderton's turf. Then, things really go ballistic when the Pre-Cogs predict that Anderton himself will kill a man he's never even met in 36 hours' time. Anderton goes on the run, along with Agatha (Samantha Morton), the most powerful of the Pre-Cogs who he's kidnapped to help him. He's got to prove he's innocent, but all the while, he might be moving ever closer to guilt.
Scott Frank and Jon Cohen's screenplay (adapted from a short story by "Blade Runner" scribe Phillip K. Dick) is more thought-provoking than your average action picture. In this current era of terrorist paranoia and ethnic profiling, this film dramatizes the potential dangers of branding individuals as criminals solely on intuition. There's a real metaphysical weight to the questions raised here. If the crime is stopped before it is committed, are those arrested really criminals? Is fate enough to go on in a criminal investigation? Does mankind really have the power to consciously change its future?
Still, "Minority Report" can be thoroughly enjoyed without thinking too deeply about these questions. Spielberg spices the picture with a number of exhilarating action sequences. There's a thrilling scene in which Anderton leaps between cars rocketing rapidly down a vertical stretch of highway, a beautifully staged battle with jet-pack cops, and a fight on an auto-plant conveyor belt that would have been more effective if I hadn't already seen basically the same scene a month ago in "Attack of the Clones" (Lucas and Spielberg are buddies, after all; it makes one wonder who ripped off whose scene). Though all of these scenes come off quite well, surprisingly, the film's pace eventually flags. Spielberg is normally a master of making a film move, but here there seems to be a lot of flab in the back half. There's no wholly unnecessary scenes here, but tighter editing would have made everything spank along much more urgently.
The film is anchored by sturdy performances. Tom Cruise is always at his best with obsessive, single-minded characters, and this role is no exception. The actor makes us truly ache for his lost son, and he acquits himself as an action hero more effectively than in the dispiriting "Mission: Impossible 2". Farrell's got a nice, no-nonsense tone here, and Morton, an Oscar nominee for "Sweet and Lowdown", again uses her marvelously expressive face and body to impressive effect. Also noteworthy in this cast are Tim Blake Nelson as a creepy wheelchair-bound prison warden, Peter Stormare as a truly disturbing back-alley eye doctor, and veteran thesp Max von Sydow as Cruise's Pre-Crime mentor.
"Minority Report" has been widely praised as one of Spielberg's most visually impressive films, and indeed, Spielberg's tech crew, including cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, costume designer Deborah L. Scott, production designer Alex McDowell, and countless f/x artists, create some truly astounding sights onscreen. In addition to the aforementioned vertical cars and jet packs, there's the menacing silver spider-robots that hunt Anderton through a slum-town building, a panorama of ever-shifting animated subway billboards that address potential consumers by name, and, perhaps most impressively, a mid-air computer matrix that allows the Pre-Cops to manipulate floating images like conductors shaping a symphony. Kaminski cloaks all these wonders in stark blues and grays, creating a vision of the future as endlessly encroaching night. It's all very stunning, but I just don't know if I'd call it a breakthrough. After all, doesn't this "innovative" film look an awful lot like "A.I.", Spielberg's summer 2001 sci-fi offering?
Still, I did not come to praise Spielberg and Co. with faint damns. While "Minority Report" is not a masterpiece, it's a skillfully made and intriguing picture that will please action buffs and thoughtful moviegoers alike. It's no "Jaws", but it's no "Lost World" either, and for that we can truly thank our lucky stars.