12 Monkeys-1995

Director Terry Gilliam

Starring Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, Brad Pitt

Scott’s Review #804

Reviewed August 21, 2018

Grade: B+

Bruce Willis stars in a 1995 science-fiction thriller named 12 Monkeys that is sure to confuse even the keenest of viewers.

With an impossible-to-follow plot (at least on a single watch), the film is quite novel and filled with edge nonetheless.

With this film, Willis came into his own and proved to some naysayers that he is more versatile than a one-note action hero. He would develop even more as the years passed- think Sixth Sense (1999).

If I may begin to summarize the complex plot, 12 Monkeys is a film about time travel (confusing enough) that traverses from the year 2035 to the year 1990, then to the year 1996, with a bevy of dreams or memories thrown in, but I am still not crystal clear on that.

The time involved threw me for a loop, and I was not able to comprehend where things shifted to……or was part of it a memory possessed by Willis’s character as a little boy?

Nonetheless, in 2035, James Cole (Willis) is a prisoner who is selected by “the powers that be” to go back in time to find a cure for a deadly virus that has wiped out a large part of the world.

He is transported to 1990 instead of 1996 and ends up in a psychiatric hospital, where he meets the fanatical Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt).

Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) appears in both the 1990 and 1996 stories as a respected psychiatrist and author. Both she and Goines become central to the plot, and the story twists and turns as events unfold.

The intention to make Willis and Stowe a romantic couple did not seem to quite work at first, but their chemistry grew on me.

The duo never received a “happily ever after” finale as they deserved, nor was their troubled romance ever fully realized, to say nothing of consummated.

The flirtation and bond they share felt more like a tease than anything else, or rather, having two Hollywood heavyweights forge some sort of romance.

Regardless, “romance” did not seem to be the point of this film.

Brad Pitt was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for the film. While he provides a quirky, showy, multirole (or multi-personality) performance, complete with tics resembling those of a Tourette’s syndrome patient, the role is not one of his best.

At this time (1995), Pitt was a rising star, and the recognition helped him tremendously. But he seems slightly overacted, making the character too over-the-top.

I much prefer his more subdued work in Seven (released the same year), or future roles in Babel (2006) and Moneyball (2011).

Appealing in parts are the frequent exterior shots of the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore, where the film is set.

Treats include the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, and the Eastern State Penitentiary filming locations, as well as numerous highway and bridge shots that add tons of authenticity.

A major score for the film, and Alfred Hitchcock fans everywhere, is the incorporation of classic film clips, specifically the mysterious Vertigo (1958), into the story.

As Kathryn and James camp out in a rustic movie theater and disguise themselves as different people, they watch a marathon of Hitchcock films (as evidenced by the many titles on the marquee).

It’s clever that the characters James and Kathryn begin to mirror the actions of Vertigo’s Scottie and Judy.

Blondes anyone?

12 Monkeys (1995) does come together after the film as the dreams/memories are laid out pretty clearly. As we have witnessed these sequences throughout, it leads to a semi-satisfying conclusion.

A bit of a beautiful mess, the film has clever tidbits and is well-acted, and the bearing of both Willis’s and Pitt’s butts might get some additional viewers.

I need to watch the film again to understand, perhaps, and connect all of the dots better.

Oscar Nominations: Best Supporting Actor-Brad Pitt, Best Costume Design