Hollywood will never again have another eccentric genius quite like Stanley Kubrick, but it certainly has the next best thing in Steven Spielberg. Up until last year’s “A. I.,” comparisons between the two directors seemed silly — Spielberg’s got a warehouse full of Academy Awards while Kubrick never tasted Oscar gold; Spielberg invented the blockbuster while Kubrick probably thought a blockbuster was something used to dole out tolchocks on the gullivers of disobedient droogies; and Kubrick’s sardonic insights and fatalistic sensibilities are just about the polar opposite from those of Spielberg.
But with “A. I.” and now “Minority Report,” Spielberg seems to be finding an increasingly Kubrickian voice — and not just because the films deal with dystopian futures and the importance of free will. What nearly makes “Minority Report” a modern-day sci-fi masterpiece (and something that was sorrowfully missing from “A.I.”) is its seamless melding of Kubrick’s ponderings with Spielberg’s unique sense of visual storytelling.
He creates a 2054 that is unnerving both in its initial absurdity and eventual believability. Pods zoom every which way on elaborate freeways, while omnipresent retinal scanners allow for the kind of media and advertising saturation that makes “The Osbournes” look like cable access.
Genetic tinkering has given birth to “pre-cogs,” hyper-sensitive mutants with the ability to visualize future murders. This power is harnessed by the Washington D.C. “pre-crime” division headed by John Anderton (Tom Cruise, “Vanilla Sky”). Anderton’s unit has prevented murders in D.C. for the past six years, and founder Burgess (Max von Sydow, “Dune”) plans to go national with it.
But things begin to fall apart when Detective Witwer (Colin Farrell, “Hart’s War”) comes to inspect pre-crime to find any faults; one of those faults happens to involve a future murder committed by Anderton.
As Anderton flees and further investigates the would-be murder, he discovers the would-be victim may or may not have something to do with the disappearance of his son six years ago. He learns the secret to his innocence lies in the premonitions of skittish pre-cog Agatha (Samantha Morton, “Sweet and Lowdown”), and they struggle to beat the future before it becomes a reality.
“Minority Report” marks another step in a line of visually striking Spielberg films. He, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and a team of so-called “futurists” find the right combination of CG effects (pay attention here, George Lucas) and ingenious set design to create the most chilling vision of the future since that of “Blade Runner.” The details are essential — Anderton’s cereal box comes alive in commercial sprightliness, newspaper headlines digitally update as events occur and Gap stores of the future find ways to become even more annoying. The real eye candy, however, comes in watching Anderton manipulate a series of holograms in piecing together future homicides.
Cruise continues his string of strong (if underrated) performances stemming back to Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” in 1999. He again proves himself a capable actor despite not being allowed to smile his way through the film, adding just enough depth and humanity to what is essentially an action role. He’s also well-backed by the likes of should-be leading man Farrell and a darkly hilarious Peter Stormare (“The Big Lebowski”).
Spielberg’s direction feels just as assured as it did in the heyday of the “Indiana Jones” trilogy — a mid-movie fistfight between Farrell and Cruise nicely recalls “The Temple of Doom.” He is unmatched in his ability to inject classical Hollywood stylistics into decidedly non-Hollywood fare and make it enormously entertaining.
If the story falters it is only when the script forgoes theme in lieu of hurriedly trying to solve Anderton’s future in “Murder She Wrote” clichés. Aside from that, “Minority Report” proves why Spielberg is the son we all wish Kubrick had.
Grade: AB
