Review: Minority Report

The year is 2054, the place Washington where no murders have been committed in six years. This is attributed to the invention and implementation of the Pre-Crime unit, which involves three psychics known as ‘Pre-cogs’ who as their name suggests have great pre-cognitive skills in predicting when a murder is going to happen, so that the Pre-Crime cops can swoop in and arrest the future suspect before the deed is actually carried out. The system, created by Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow) and scientist Dr. Stineman (Lois Smith) has so far been infallible. John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is a police officer in the Pre-Crime unit who is about to have an ‘oh shit’ moment: Whilst investigating the latest Pre-Crime he comes to realise that the culprit is set to be…himself. Knowing that this simply can’t be true, Anderton (who is still grieving for the loss of his daughter in a moment of distraction at a public pool years ago) has 36 hours before this supposed event is meant to occur and goes on the run to figure out why he’d be pre-destined to kill someone he doesn’t even know. He is now targeted by his fellow colleagues (Neal McDonough, Steve Harris, and Patrick Kilpatrick among them), as well as an obnoxious arse kisser from the Attorney-General’s department named Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell). Samantha Morton plays a Pre-cog named Agatha, Kathryn Morris is Anderton’s estranged wife, Peter Stormare is a seedy and unlicensed doctor whose special skills Anderton needs to evade capture, and Tim Blake Nelson works for Containment, essentially a hall of records (but with the bodies of intended perpetrators held there as well as the visions of their crimes).

A really enjoyable Steven Spielberg (“Jaws”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “ET: The Extra Terrestrial”, “Schindler’s List”, “War of the Worlds”) sci-fi flick from 2002 that is a bee’s dick away from being something even more. A completely transparent mystery is the culprit of this otherwise intelligent, and frankly kinda cool film that presents a vision of the future that is pretty fascinating. Far too long, it’s still a well-acted and fun ride.

Adapted from a Philip K. Dick (whose works have been turned into films like “Blade Runner”, “Total Recall”, and “The Adjustment Bureau”) short story by Jon Cohen (a novelist in his thus far only screen credit) and Scott Frank (“Little Man Tate”, “Get Shorty”, “The Wolverine”), the plot is far from original. I mean, it’s essentially having Hitchcock’s ‘Wrong Man’ character-type thrown into a “Fahrenheit 451” for the 00s, as a futuristic police officer finds himself on the wrong side of the law he’s up until now been a part of. Technologically, though? It’s definitely an original. Spielberg and his team of ‘future experts’ (whom he assembled several years before hand) have clearly put a lot of effort into depicting as credible a future as possible for this science-fiction story. Touch screen technology is even more prevalent now than it was when the film was made (though the technology in the film isn’t quite touch screen, just seemingly reminiscent of it), and there’s several other notions that aren’t too off-the-wall. Running TV commercials in tunnels? I don’t doubt we’ll get there at some point. Electronic ads that literally speak directly to you? Facebook pretty much has a variant of those now in 2017. Even when things do get a bit wacky (whether via Spielberg or Mr. Dick’s invention), it’s fascinating. The whole notion of pre-cogs is obviously pretty fantastical, but imagine for a second that it’s not. It opens up a lot for discussion. Pre-destination or free will. Privacy vs. Prevention. Put in the context of the latter, it’s not fantastical…it’s right now. Hell, it’s ten years ago. The film merely gives it a sci-fi twist of pre-crime (The highly underrated “Déjà vu” had similar themes going on). And what if the technology is wonky or in some way manipulated? Our apparent over-reliance on technology is a very current topic, and this film is very much concerned with it. The fascinating eye-changing technology and temporary face-altering technology are also seemingly fantastical thing that if real, nonetheless conjures up some very bad feelings about what it could lead to. I loved all this stuff, not to mention the fascinating, “Jetsons”-esque mode of travel where you can travel upwards in your space-y car, scaling buildings. That was just cool, and very Steven Spielberg. Speaking of the director, this holds up visually in 2017 as still being state-of-the-art, and I’d expect nothing less from a filmmaker of Spielberg’s calibre. Yes, it’s a very blue/green-looking film as shot by Spielberg regular Janusz Kaminski (“Schindler’s List”, “Saving Private Ryan”, “Bridge of Spies”), but attractively so. The cinematography is frankly stunning and very, very slick.

Aside from one brief scene where Spielberg’s camera lingers just a touch too long on a certain actor’s face to give the game away, he proves to get strong work out of his actors. The cast is really interesting and eclectic, headed by Tom Cruise who is perfectly fine as the film’s ‘wrong man’ on the run. In what is a pretty wild opening 15 minutes, he does some of the best green screen acting I’ve ever seen, and it’s probably not easy. He needs to look like he’s concentrating on what’s in front of him, but also give us the viewer an idea of what he’s thinking while he’s doing it. He’s definitely easy to take in the role which doesn’t rely quite as much on stunt work/action as some of his other forays into genre filmmaking have of late. He’s on the run here for the most part, but there’s really only a couple of action scenes. Colin Farrell is rock-solid as a smug, ambitious little prick who nonetheless may not be a bad guy, and Neal McDonough probably gives his best performance to date as a somewhat reluctantly antagonistic cop. This guy has a job to do, orders to follow, and has no reason to question anything. Mistakes don’t happen in this futuristic society. The great Max von Sydow gives a mostly terrific, John Huston-ish performance as the grandfather of this society. Meanwhile, look out for scene-stealing cameos by Tim Blake Nelson, a terrifically creepy Lois Smith (as the creator of the pre-cogs), and an absolutely disgusting Peter Stormare in his scummy element as a perverted ‘doctor’. It’s also nice to see Steve Harris (who I loved on “The Practice”) and genre henchman Patrick Kilpatrick (“Death Warrant”, “Last Man Standing”, “Eraser”) in minor roles as well. The ethereal Samantha Morton is also well-cast in the pivotal role of pre-cog ‘Agatha’, though she doesn’t have much to do for most of the film.

Given that it runs about 2 ½ hours, it’s a bit of a shame that you’ll probably finger the culprit about 40 or so minutes in. Otherwise this is a fascinating, well-made and well-acted movie that blends chase movie, detective movie, and thoughtful sci-fi flick together for a highly entertaining whole. It’s not a great Spielberg movie, but it’s a really good one.

Rating: B+