Review of Twelve Monkeys (1995) by Kevin G — 11 Jun 2011

As per usual from Terry Gilliam, you can almost always guarantee a surreal and bizarre take on reality. 12 Monkeys has that beautifully insane and absurd humor throughout, but it's also coupled with a terrific examination of mental health and perception.

I love Gilliam's dark underground vision of the future and his trademark nutso and archaic creations of technology, that are strikingly reminiscent to the production design of Brazil. He also makes use of those wonderful dutch angles and special lenses that really heightens the craziness, especially in the mental hospital scenes.

More than anything though, what Gilliam really gets is some amazing performances from the actors. Bruce Willis is amazing, as a man who comes off crazy, but is honestly the sanest person around. His performance is so vulnerable and sincere that it really feels possible that maybe some guy sent from the future is probably locked up in a mental institution somewhere.

In terms of comic performances though, Brad Pitt is just about flawless. He plays the character with just the right amount of cockeyed charm and earnest nuttiness that it's impossible to not love him.

In some ways I would describe it as almost a predecessor to the more refined and calculated insanity of his Tyler Durden performance. Additionally, Madeleine Stowe is really great as a psychiatrist starting to lose faith in her profession and question her own sanity.

I also really liked David Morse's creepy portrayal of a brilliant, disturbed mastermind. In some ways the film almost seems like its taking the concept of what if a rambling, seemingly deranged guy in a mental institution was telling the complete and utter truth, a simultaneously hilarious and frightening idea about society's view of mental health.

I also really loved it's partial tribute to La Jetee, really playing on the most beautifully ironic aspects of it and delivering the film with an overall tragic idea of fate and the inevitable. I'd rank it high among Gilliam's other films like Brazil and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and would call it a true masterpiece, that honestly was ahead of it's time.