Good visuals can save a bad movie. Film is a visual medium and the story isn't really all that important - I think that much of a movie's worth is in its rewatchability, and when rewatching you already know the story. What matters is the sensory experience. Pretty pictures, good music - those are the things that make or break the movie.
'The Cell' is strong on the visuals. Tarsem Singh is a master of production design: he brings to life visions, paintings, dreams. 'The Cell' has a wide array of color, exuberant costumes, imaginative settings, unsettling situations. It's got a horse that is sliced into five-inch steaks, it's got a man bound in golden chains, it's got a rendition of an Odd Nerdrum painting, it's got a Geisha costume in a desert with cherry blossoms raining.
Unfortunately it's also got Jennifer Lopez in the lead role, wooden as ever. The surreal sequences present themselves as a look inside a serial killer's twisted psyche, okay, so they're loaded with symbolism, but it rings somehow untrue, like it's too grandiose to be somebody's mind, especially somebody with no artistic ambitions or interests. It didn't feel personal, more like a collection of art with no connection or theme.
'The Cell' is strong on the visuals. Tarsem Singh is a master of production design: he brings to life visions, paintings, dreams. 'The Cell' has a wide array of color, exuberant costumes, imaginative settings, unsettling situations. It's got a horse that is sliced into five-inch steaks, it's got a man bound in golden chains, it's got a rendition of an Odd Nerdrum painting, it's got a Geisha costume in a desert with cherry blossoms raining.
Unfortunately it's also got Jennifer Lopez in the lead role, wooden as ever. The surreal sequences present themselves as a look inside a serial killer's twisted psyche, okay, so they're loaded with symbolism, but it rings somehow untrue, like it's too grandiose to be somebody's mind, especially somebody with no artistic ambitions or interests. It didn't feel personal, more like a collection of art with no connection or theme.