Review of Twelve Monkeys (1995) by Neilj. — 14 Jul 2008

When 12 Monkeys was released, it was hyped as: 'Bruce Willis is in a madhouse! Is he really crazy?' Buzz was mostly negative, but with a few enthusiastic endorsements. Since that is usually the sign of crap-- the rare endorsement almost always a shilly affair-- I stayed away.

Well, I just watched this movie because it was a monthly freebie on digital cable. I'm here to say that 12 Monkeys is a fine movie, and I really enjoyed it. Most 'good' thrillers and time-travel films have clues that you need to look for on the second viewing if you want to know what happened, if you really want to find out why the film was 'good'.

Or, the 'good' film shows you directly, in a big reveal, so that no explanations are necessary for anyone with an IQ over 80. 12 Monkeys, however, if you are intelligent, puts everything right in front of the (observant) viewer's face and doesn't play any tricks; there's no filmmaker dishonesty or bait and switch involved, which is incredibly refreshing.

Willis and Stowe are quite good together; their growing intimacy is convincing, and their relationship becomes the non-cheesy center of a sci-fi time-travel film. (Not to sound too creepy, but the many close-ups of Stowe's lovely face were not at all unpleasant; her transformation from concerned psychiatric professional to a modern Cassandra with her hair down is a real pleasure to watch.

) The film's major, glaring flaw is Brad Pitt, who is so over-the-top and verbose in his role as a certifiable ingrate gazillionaire scientist's son, that one wonders how much better a film it would have been without him.

His manic and too-clever by-half exposition doesn't seem to disturb Willis, yet Willis (apparently like Gilliam) could not reign him in. Art direction of 'the future' is where 12 Monkeys seems most like a Gilliam film-- the environment of the survivors on a post-apocalyptic Earth looks something like something from Time Bandits, with modern technology apparently cobbled out of chain-link fencing, old TVs, 50s-era medical instruments and the guts of grandfather clocks.

Willis' performance is weakest after his transformation (which I won't spoil); he is simply too contrite; a lighter touch would have been much more powerful. Anyway, this review is getting long.

If you've always thought of 12 Monkeys as a cheap sci-fi thriller starring Bruce Willis that nobody really remembers or cares much about, I suggest that you watch it. I promise that you will be pleasantly surprised.