Review of The Experiment (2010) by Van R — 23 Sep 2010

This lackluster sociological study gone wrong poses the perennial question: is mankind higher than animals on the evolutionary scale? "Prison Break" writer & director Paul Scheuring argues that mankind is higher on the evolutionary scale because we can correct our problems. Unfortunately, "The Experiment" doesn't share so much as a glimmer of "Prison Break's" luster. Moreover, Scheuring's film constitutes a remake of the Teutonic film "Das Experiment" derived from Mario Giordano's book that was inspired by the notorious real-life Stanford prison experiment. This claustrophobic yarn is presented in a straightforward fashion, meaning that humor is conspicuously absent from the action, but the gravity of the situation yields few rewards. You'd think with his background in the "Prison Break" series that Scheuring should have shined with his adaptation, but "The Experiment" degenerates rather quickly into a standard issue jailhouse drama that neither leaves you with a good taste in your mouth or a sense of catharsis about its dramatic upheavals. It is clear in retrospect why Elijah Wood withdrew from this debacle after several days of shooting.

A government think-tank hires 26 individuals and offers them $14,000 for two weeks and then divides them into guards and inmates in a facility out in the middle of nowhere and then watches what happens for two weeks. Of course, the guards usurp their authority and take advantage of the prisoner who eventually turn on them and overpower them. The surprises are few and far between in this one-dimensional sociological film. Travis (Adrien Brody of "Predators") answers a want-ad in the newspaper to participate in the study after he is laid off from his job at a nursing home. As you can imagine, Travis qualifies as the most sympathetic character. The cast fare better than the woebegone material. The bespectacled behavioral scientists who create this study tell guards and inmates alike that they must not strike each other and warn them that the study will be suspended if violence erupts. Furthermore, they point out that a red light will come on and they study terminate without them getting their paycheck. The scientists don't do a good job on the background check of one inmates, Nix (Clifton Collins, Jr. of "Brothers") because he has served time and is an Aryan nations guy. Forest Whitaker is well cast as a guard named Barris who lives with his mother and needs the dough to pay the rent. No sooner does the meek Barris don his guard's uniform than he goes off on a power trip. Scheuring shows Barris getting a hard-on after he bosses around another person. Later, Barris decides the best way to punish Travis is to urinate on him as well as shave his head. Aside from the opening and closing moments, "The Experiment" boasts an all-male cast. Before he joins the experimental study, Travis meets pretty blond girl Maggie Grace during a peace rally and they decide to visit India. At fade-out, Brody makes it to India and Grace kisses his scarred knuckles. Poorly done from start to finish with a plot that is predictable as a boulder tumbling down a mountain side. Some of Brody's scenes in a pipe-like enclosure bring back memories of "The Jacket.".