Rating:  

Atlas Entertainment, Classico and Universal Pictures.

Written by: David Peoples and Janet Peoples, adapted from the 1962 short film, “La Jetee” by Chris Marker.

A manic, whirlwind of a science-fiction film, “12 Monkeys” features a great performance by Bruce Willis and a memorable supporting turn by Brad Pitt, which earned Pitt his first Oscar nomination.

Set in a post-apocalyptic 2035, much of Earth’s population live underground after a 1996 virus wiped out most of the Earth’s population. Willis plays convicted criminal, James Cole, who is forced to go back to 1996 to investigate and hopefully eradicate the virus before it spreads. However, Cole lands in 1990 and after meeting Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe), he is admitted into a mental hospital and meets Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), a patient with activist leanings who may or may not be as crazed and mad as people believe.

Once Cole convinces Railly that he is telling the truth about traveling from the future and his purpose of arriving in 1990, a race across the U.S. and a race against time occurs with leaps forward and back and abundant plot twists and turns.

Directed by cutting-edge filmmaker, Terry Gilliam, “12 Monkeys” may suffer from being extremely difficult to follow without a notepad and paper, but as an entire experience, it is a disorienting and mesmerizing film. Willis was at the top of his game during the 1990′s and he gives an underrated and engrossing performance as the morally challenged criminal who learns humanity and morality, with an increased sense that it may all be learned too late. Brad Pitt’s manic performance as Jeffrey Goines is terrific. That Pitt never over or underplays the character, strapped with trap doors for lesser actors, is a testament to Pitt’s often overlooked acting abilities.

Distinctive in its presentation and its frenetic and haphazard pacing, “12 Monkeys” may not please everyone, but blending humor, drama, and a cynical look at the future, the film plays its role and plays it well.

“12 Monkeys” received the following Academy Award nominations for 1995:

• Best Supporting Actor (Brad Pitt)
• Best Costume Design

Should I See It?

“12 Monkeys” with all of its complexities, is a joy to watch and take in, even if bits and pieces fly by you and do not completely make sense.

One of Bruce Willis’ better performances and one of the final movies Brad Pitt made before he moved to the mega A-lister status he has enjoyed for years and years.

Like all of Terry Gilliam’s films, the film is refreshing and unique and is rightfully heralded as attempting to take its genre, in this case fantasy and science fiction, and move it forward.

Terry Gilliam’s films are works that do not fit neatly inside a box. “12 Monkeys” will serve as too off-kilter and left-of-center for some viewers.

Time travel, fantasy and science-fiction, government conspiracy films, icky viral sufferers – individually as the focus is one thing, rolling it all together is another. Burdened with a whole lot of plot and story and jumping back and forth, a lot of viewers may just throw up their hands at the whole experience.