A Cartesian conundrum

Rating: Null/10 (22 November 2003)

A sublime (though not totally original) mixture of generic metaphysical celluloid history: stir up Jacobs Ladder with Total Recall, add a smattering of It's a Wonderful Life, a dash of City of Angels...with the best bits of cyberpunk, and there you have it. What sets this film apart from the plethora of post-dead shockers are very strong performances. Tom Cruise's masked man carries all the pathos and dread of Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera, and the movie really does keep you guessing right up to the very end. This film touches on genuinely profound philosophical areas, and is never resolved in this regard. The mind/body distinction is barely explored to any degree of satisfaction, yet the movie leaves one with a sense of intellectual stimulation that signals it to be far greater than the sum total of all of its many parts. Without doubt a work of flawed genius.