‘Everybody runs…’
Philip K. Dick is one of the most revered science fiction writers of all time and so it is no surprise that he has proven to be a gold mine for serious filmmakers everywhere. Blade Runner, Total Recall, The Adjustment Bureau… the list goes on. Minority Report combines one of Dick’s short stories with probably the most marketable filmmaker and film star of all time in Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise, and while it is very good, neither Spielberg nor Cruise would claim it as one of their best…
Set in a utopian version of America in 2054 in which serious crime has been wiped out due to a ‘precrime’ programme that relies on three clairvoyant humans (“precogs”) to predict the future, Minority Report draws from both Kubrick and Hitchcock to deliver a story that is often lacking in warmth and humanity (Kubrick) and prominently features a man who appears to have been falsely accused (Hitchcock). The man is Chief John Anderton (Cruise), the commanding officer of the Precrime programme. Max von Sydow plays his director and confidante, a fresh-faced Colin Farrell is an officious irritant and Samantha Morton portrays the most powerful of the three precogs. Elsewhere, Tim Blake Nelson steals every scene in which he appears as a prison guard who enjoys his job just a little too much and Neal McDonough is as reliable as ever as Cruise’s right-hand man.
Minority Report is an odd film aesthetically because it is at once authentically futuristic, but it’s also very 2002. Personally, and I know it’s deliberate, but I hate the washed-out filming style here. It’s ugly. When watching a Spielberg film, I don’t want it to look like it could be part of the Saw franchise. It’s a shame because the visual effects are lovingly rendered and often far superior to other films that were released a long time after this one. No matter. The story is great, both layered and complex, without ever threatening to become inaccessible. Cruise is at the top of his game, although his range and consistency as a leading man make it difficult to pinpoint his peak. Spielberg draws from film noir, the gritty ’70s movies of New Hollywood and the aforementioned (Kubrick and Hitchcock), to produce something that wears its influences on its sleeves but still very much feels like a Spielberg movie.
Minority Report was a huge financial success and received polite admiration from critics, and while it is an accomplished and compelling film, both director and star have done much better work elsewhere.
