The Cell

Plot synopsis:
Child psychologist Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is hired to conduct an experimental virtual reality treatment for coma patients: a "Neurological Cartography and Synaptic Transfer System" device managed by Drs. Henry West and Miriam Kent that allows her to enter a comatose mind and attempt to coax them into consciousness. The technology is funded by the parents of her patient, Edward Baines (Colton James), a young boy left comatose by a latent viral infection that causes an unusual form of schizophrenia. Despite Deane's lack of progress, West and Kent reject Deane's suggestion to reverse the feed to bring Baines into her mind, fearing the unknown consequences of him experiencing an unfamiliar world.
Serial killer Carl Rudolph Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) traps his victims in a cell in the form of a glass enclosure that slowly fills with water by means of an automatic timer, then uses a hoist in his basement to suspend himself above their bodies while watching the recorded video of their deaths. He succumbs to the same schizophrenic illness and falls into a coma just as the FBI identifies him, leaving them without any leads as to the location of his latest victim, Julia Hickson (Tara Subkoff). After learning of this experimental technology, Agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) persuades Deane to enter Stargher's mind and discover Hickson's location.
Deane enters the dark dreamscape of Stargher's twisted psyche, filled with doll-like replicas of his victims. Stargher's innocent side manifests as Young Stargher (Jake Thomas) and leads Deane through his memories of abuse he suffered at the hands of his sadistic father. Deane nurtures Young Stargher in hopes of getting Hickson's location but she is thwarted by another manifestation: King Stargher, a demonic idealization of his murderous side that dominates the dreamscape. King Stargher torments Deane until she is mentally at his mercy, making her forget the world is not real. Dr. West discovers this while monitoring Deane's vitals. He warns that what happens to Deane while she is integrated into Stargher's mindscape will inflict neurological damage on her real body. Novak volunteers to enter Stargher's mind to make Deane remember herself.
Inside Stargher's mind, Novak is captured and subjected to King Stargher's torture while Deane looks on as Stargher's servant. Novak reminds Deane of a painful memory to reawaken her awareness that she is in Stargher's mind. Deane breaks free of Stargher's hold and stabs King Stargher to free Novak. During their escape, Novak sees a version of the glass enclosure with the same insignia as the hoist in Stargher's basement. Novak's team discovers that after the hoist's previous owner went bankrupt, the government hired Stargher to seal up his property. Novak races to the property, where the enclosure is completely filled but Hickson is treading water and breathing through a pipe. Novak breaks the glass wall and rescues Hickson.
Deane, now sympathetic to Young Stargher, locks her colleagues out and reverses the feed of the device to pull Stargher's mind into her own. She presents a comforting paradise to Young Stargher but he knows it is only a temporary reprieve from King Stargher. He shifts to Adult Stargher to relate a childhood story of when he drowned an injured bird as a mercy killing to prevent its torture at his father's hands. King Stargher intrudes as a scaly snake-man but this time, Deane is in control and she beats him to a bloody pulp before impaling him with a sword. However, Young Stargher exhibits the same injuries as King Stargher, and killing either manifestation kills Stargher. Adult Stargher reminds her of the story of the bird and implores her to "save" him. Deane carries Young Stargher into a pool, putting him out of his misery as Stargher dies in the real world.
In the aftermath, Deane and Novak meet outside of Stargher's house. The FBI has officially excluded the mind technology from their inquiry and Deane has gotten approval to use the reverse feed on Baines. The final scene is of Baines walking to embrace Deane inside the paradise of Deane's mindscape.

Tags: dark, psychological, cult, alternate reality, violence, horror, atmospheric, psychedelic, sci-fi

Review:
The last time I reviewed a film helmed by a music video director, I was very angry at what I'd seen (`Mystery Men'), but Tarsem Singh spares us the fish-eye lenses and commercial overindulgences and decides to concentrate on presenting an astonishing visual and audible journey into the mind of a serial killer in `The Cell'.Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) kills women by drowning them in glass cells, all the while videotaping the event.
Lovely.Meanwhile, FBI agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn) is hot on the killer's trail, and although Carl's started to get sloppy, he's just kidnapped another girl and she has 40 hours before her cell fills with water.
Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) is a child psychologist involved in an experimental project that allows her to TRAVEL INSIDE THE MIND of coma victims.And so begins a strange array of visuals and sounds, blended together so unusually that you honestly feel like you're experiencing a dream a not so pleasant dream.
To me, this would have taken this story to yet another psychological level, but perhaps it would have been too much for viewers.Despite this shortcoming, `The Cell' stills provides a myriad of images that will make you want to watch a lot of cute cartoons before turning in for the night.
Although the story may be impossible to believe and much of the dialogue seems contrived, the one and only important thing to remember when contemplating watching this movie is that it contains some of the most amazing and disturbing imagery ever put on film.
A must see for anyone seriously interested in cinematography and the use of the film cell as a canvas on which to display true works of visual art.
Enter Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn), a FBI agent tracking down a very sick serial killer Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio), who drowns his victims then dresses them up like dolls.
The Cell can only be described as a Sci-fi serial killer thriller that's visually disturbing, creepy, and one of the wildest films ever.
In fact, the story is pretty good.We start with Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) in the mind of a catatonic boy.
The style makes you keep watching till the end and provides the best moments of the movie.Vincent D'Onofrio is unforgettable as the serial-killer with a twisted mind.
The opening scene takes you into the seemingly innocent mind of a comatose little boy, and the things that Catherine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) sees are first fascinating and then terrifying.
The things that she later sees in the mind of Vincent Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) are amazingly imaginative and fascinating, most of this stuff has never been seen in film before.The story of The Cell is not exactly something that is really groundbreaking.
This is the best movie of the year to date.I've read numerous complaints about this film, anywhere from all style and no substance to poorly cast characters and bad acting.
Personally, I would more than welcome another movie by Tarsem, and would love to see someone try to challenge him.We've all heard talk about going inside the mind of a serial killer, and yes, I do agree that the "genre" is a bit overworked.
But "The Cell" does not blaze down the same trail, we are given a new twist, we are physically transported into the mind and presented with nothing less than a fascinating journey of the most mysterious subject matter ever studied.I like how the movie does not bog us down with too much scientific jargon trying to explain how Jennifer Lopez actually gets to enter the brain of another.
True, I do like explanations with my movies, but when a movie ventures onto new ground you must let it do what it desires and simply take it in.I noticed how the film was very dark when it showed reality, maybe to contrast the bright visuals when inside the brain of another.
The acting is good without being outstanding but that does not matter because the subject matter and the way it is put on the big screen makes this one of the best horror movies i have seen for a long while.
Directed by Tarsem Singh (of R.E.M. music video Losing my Religion fame), he brings great visual and original quality to this picture that nowadays are being seen by quite a few music video/comercial directors turned film (Spike Jonze's Being John Malkvoich, David Fichner's Fight Club, David O.
And I think that shows that people who have experience directing off screen and then come into film, disrupt the film industry, in a good way.Tarsem has Jennifer Lopez back on the screen after a year absence (she was musical last year) playing a psychologist of the mind, who is hired by FBI to go inside the mind of a killer (Vincent D'Onofrio is a terrifying performance) who is the only one who knows where his last victim might be.
It's a great performance from an underrated actor.While "The Cell" doesn't work as well on every level it ambitiously attempts (some of the actions of the characters are not believable) and while it is all based on some fairly flimsy scientific logic, it is an occasionally shocking, visually astounding head trip that rewards multiple viewings..
Decent performances all round; particularly from Jennifer Lopez as Catherine Deane, I thought she played quite a tricky part very well and Vincent D'Onofrio as the serial killer, Carl Stargher.
Also worthy of note were; Vince Vaughn in a rare dramatic role as Peter Novak, Jake Weber as Gordon Ramsey, Dylan Baker as Henry West, Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Dr. Miriam Kent and a special mention for Jake Thomas as the young Carl Stargher.I have rarely seen a film that has the scope of this one; it really tests the little grey cells to the maximum.
The psychiatrist is tasked with entering his mind in order to find the whereabouts of a girl he has captured and left in a deadly torture cell.This is essentially a serial killer film with a very original angle.
I must say that this is one of the unique film I have seen in years.I had low expectations about this one.This movie really amazed me!Jennifer Lopez was really good.The "dream sequences" were beautiful.A unique film to be seen more than once!8/10.
Ok so maybe Jennifer Lopez isn't a great actor,neither is Vince Vaughn..but they played their roles quite convicingly and Ms Lopez is a beauty whose presence gives a brilliant stark contrast to the dark images inside a serial killer's mind.
As for the plot, I found it compelling enough; I'm no crime/thriller connoisseur, but I had the same general reaction to this story as I had to "The Silence of the Lambs'."  In the summer of "Hollow Man," it's miraculous to see an art film produced by a large studio (similar precedents include "Dark City" and "Being John Malkovich"); sometimes they slip through the cracks, and you just have to have to be able to discern them from the rest of the hollywood hogwash..
Actually "delight" is probably the wrong word, the movie being about a serial killer and all, but you know what I mean.This was the first time I saw a movie based on the director's music video reputation and I was expecting nothing more than flashy cool visuals.
Can you get rid of the evil side of someone and nurture the inner child?While that is going on Protosevich sets a traditional clock ticking as the FBI agent tries to save the last victim in time.Jennifer Lopez's character is only sketched but there is enough detail there to know where she is coming from.
She hasn't got a reflecting character - someone to talk to about her feelings and where she's coming from - so you have to learn about her mostly by her lifestyle.The Cell is not exactly feel good entertainment but it is still an exceptional piece of movie-making..
That's Jennifer Lopez's role here as "Catherine Deane." When she enters, the visuals are perhaps like someone on LSD, and they are very interesting, along with good sound effects.
Yes, I have to admit the story may be secondary, reminding one of The Silence of the Lambs, but remember, this film did dream heists before Inception did.With all this talk about the film's visual execution, some may say that The Cell is merely style over substance.
Things start getting hectic when she enters the mind of a psychotic killer named Carl Stargher (Vincent D'onofrio) in order to find out where he has hidden his latest victim.There were plenty of interesting scenes from a cinematic perspective, but the dialogue and story itself did little to make this movie very good.
With a girl still missing and no clue as to where she is slowly being drowned, the FBI turn to Deane and her team to go inside Carl's mind and try and find out where the girl is, before it is too late.I'm not sure if the plot is harder to swallow than Lopez's casting but certainly both these things take a certain amount of swallowing to get into this film.
Of course it never gets above the level of derivative serial killer movie and a load of obvious psychoanalysis stop it becoming very dark but in this area music video director Singh comes into his own.His visions are impressive and he directs really well with his expensive range of effects.
Support from Weber, Jean-Baptiste and a few others add a bit of interest and credit to Subkoff who produces a convincing turn despite being isolated from the majority of the story.Overall this is an average serial killer movie that is only really worth seeing because of the visuals.
The story could have been much stronger but it works as a frame for the visual effects  which is pretty much the same for the cast, who are just part of the look of the film rather than well developed characters..
The Cell' is a sci-fi thriller set in a vaguely futuristic world in which psychologists like Jennifer Lopez can put on a body-suit made out of Twizzlers, drape a cyber-hankie over a patient's face, and transport themselves into the patient's dreams.
Anyway, the dream sequences aren't too good.This is a serial-killer movie so jaded that even the most horrific crimes elicit little more than a knitted brow from the main characters.
The serial killer plotline pushed the film over into exploitation movie territory; I think by now I've seen enough movies where the passive female victim waits to be rescued, and the periodic cuts to her in her "cell" failed to generate any suspense or sympathy and just served to underline the exploitation.
Lopez's voiceovers of "I'm already in", "His victims", and the overemphasised "Aha!" moment with the engraved metal plate), and the allegedly "original" visual imagery was pretty much without exception stolen from somewhere, especially the sequence which followed the Quay brothers' "Street of Crocodiles" (a great short film, by the way) almost shot-for-shot.
After the police track down serial killer Carl Stargher, they find he has fell into a coma, this is bad news as his last victim is holed up in a cell that fills with water at frequent intervals, she's still alive but only Stargher knows where she is......The Cell to me was working just fine as a standard serial killer maniac on the loose film, we are introduced to the maniac early on {Vincent D'Onofrio on disturbed form}, and we get repulsed to the point that we are in no doubt that this is a troubled mind.
The visual effects are stunning to the core and Jennifer Lopez's ass actually doesn't star in this movie.
Searching for last victim of mass murder whose gone to koma must young psychiatric Jennifer Lopez step into his terrible dreams and nightmares in which rules daemon to find clues about his life and wants to help him and last kidnapped women.She must fight his ruthless mind which is personalized into horrible monster to save her own life, women which is dying and defeat monster in Carls ( Vincent D'onofrio ) head to won.Surealistic dreams stars like Jennifer Lopez,Vincent D'onofrio,Vincent Vaughn in perfect shocking thriller with absolutely amazing story and casting.One of Jennifer Lopez's best performance as actress this movie becomes legend..
It's basically a two hour music video full of interesting ideas that achieve nothing in particular.The Cell has a reasonably promising premise: Jennifer Lopez using a scientific device that allows her to enter the head of Vincent d'Onofrio's serial killer while Vince Vaughan sits around looking like Vince Vaughan usually looks in a film.
Instead all we have is a lot of kind of arty looking stuff, some disturbing imagery, and talented actors struggling to bring life to characters straight from the cookie cutter.We are left with a film that despite having an interesting premise, good actors and stunning visuals, has nothing of value to say.
In essence, it's CSI by way of Paprika, with Lopez's character entering the dreamscape of a criminal to try and find his latest victim.It's in these dream sequences that the film really signs.
Sort of expanding on "The Silence of the Lambs", "The Cell" portrays a woman (Jennifer Lopez) entering a comatose killer's (Vincent D'Onofrio) mind so that he can help her find his latest victim.
Only in this case, the only person who knows, the killer himself (powerfully played by Vincent D'Onofrio) is in a coma and we need psychologist Jennifer Lopez' sci-fi mind-meld machine to get into his head and force him to tell all.
The inside-the-mind sequences are well realised and often pretty stunning, all the leads perform adequately, the gruesomeness is to the max if you like that kind of thing, but the hype around the whole thing led to a disappointment for me, as I had expected something completely new and unlike anything ever done before, not this fairly successful blending of serial-killer and special-effect-horror genre staples.
It is about a child psychologist, played surprisingly well by Jennifer Lopez, who enters the mind of a serial killer.
The story that goes along with the visuals seems like a totally separate movie from the mind sequences, you want to watch both.
In the new thriller `The Cell' first-time director Tarsem Singh literally takes us on a tour of the surreal world that is a serial killer's psyche.
As time grows shorter and shorter for the kidnapped girl, Dr. Dean begins to not only search for her, she tries to save the life of the serial killer himself who is also trapped with the demons of his own mind.Much like a music video without the music (Which is what `The Cell' ultimately becomes) this film is all visual and little substance.
However, these visuals are so much the foreground of the film that when Dr. Dean is not inside the killer's mind, the story lags so much that we cannot wait for her to go back in.
We are only left to speculate at how disturbingly mind-blowing this film's meaning could have been.For what it is worth, the images seen in `The Cell' are some of the finest uses of camera work and set design in recent years.
The special effects were amazing, as were the costumes, cinematics, script, and near everything else for this film.I have a $10 bet with a friend (who, as of right now, hasn't seen the movie) saying that The Cell will be nominated for at least one of the 5 big Oscars (Best Actor, Actress, Director, Picture, or Screenplay).
"The Cell" tries to use this visual eye candy as a substitute for story, plot, character, intrigue, and interest, and fails miserably on all counts.I'd give it 1 star for the only one real star in it; "Vincent D'Onofrio".
Soon, FBI agent, Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn), and the FBI turn to psychotherapist Catharine Deane (Jennifer Lopez), who (with brand new and interesting technology) goes into Carl's twisted mind to see where he is hiding Julia.
I didn't expect a few parts yet that's what movies offer unless the plot is pointless or one of those films that you say, "Seen it before...*yawn*!"Watching this film was like looking at a painting of pure surrealism.
This film is much better than "Silence Of The Lambs", where as it goes beyond  just plain killings and actually into the killers mind, like a sort of playland.
It seemed to me that the story line for "The Cell" was a futuristic compilation of these three novels.I'll start first with characters:  Catherine (Jennifer Lopez) seems very much like Agent Clarice Starling.
When The Cell originally opened five years ago, it was part of a smattering of movies about serial killers.
The Director made a huge visual movie,totally new and fresh at least unique and original....but the story is sooo predicable and no make sense at all and more Jennifer Lopez was a wrong choice for this kind of role,should be done for a better actress with more reputable career....Vincent D'Onofrio as the killer and Vince Vaughn as FBI agent are fine and delivery....but Jlo spoil the movie!!!
Vince Vaughn plays an FBI agent/profiler who is after a serial killer (Vincent D'Onofrio) who likes to do some pretty twisted things to his victims.
The Cell is a sci-fi thriller film directed by Tarsem Singh with Jennifer Lopez in the lead.
The Cell is all style and no substance, a movie that is visually impressive even by today's standards but with a cast you don't care for, weak dialogue/script including a hollow story that raises many questions about the technology used throughout the film.
Having a poor cast is one thing then to go and have no character depth, weak script/writing and clichéd lines these hamper the film even further.The only reason anyone should watch The Cell is for the creative visuals, costumes, set pieces displayed and Vincent D'Onofrio's strong acting, which shows how truly underrated he is as an actor.