Minority Report
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Philip K. Dick (short story), Scott Frank and Jon Cohen (screenplay)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris, Colin Farrell

Say what you want about Steven Spielberg, but he is one of the few Hollywood filmmakers who seems to be putting any thought and care into his movies lately. Maybe he bit off more than he could chew with A.I., but it’s still a beautiful film to watch from a purely aesthetic standpoint. So now bring on his latest project, Minority Report.

It’s another sci-fi story, but unlike A.I. it has plenty of heart-pumping action sequences, and it stars the prettiest man alive, Tom Cruise. What’s not to like?

Minority Report is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick, who also wrote the novel “Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?”, which was the basis for Blade Runner, and the short story “Total Recall”. By starting with source material by Philip K. Dick, you are already one step ahead. The interesting thing about the writing process for this movie is that Spielberg hired Scott Frank to do the screenplay… a man known for his work on Elmore Leonard crime adaptations Get Shorty and Out Of Sight, but who lacked any previous experience with science-fiction. The result is a believable movie that generates suspense and intrigue within a futuristic framework — without calling too much attention to that framework. It feels kind of like a cross between Total Recall, Gattaca and Memento.

The year is 2054, and in the District of Columbia, murder has been basically irradicated thanks to a new preventative police system known as “precrime”. Through genetic experimentation, three human beings were accidentally born with powers of clairvoyance. The strange thing is, the only future visions that they are stricken with happen to be the murders of other human beings… apparently it has to do with the overwhelming pain that homicide inflicts on the fabric of humanity… or something like that. Anyways, by collecting the mental images from these three gifted humans (known as “precogs”), the police force is able to pinpoint the time and location of a future murder, and arrest the perpetrator before the murder happens. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, that’s what the federal government thinks, so they send an investigator to track down any flaws that might exist in the precrime system. He gets more than he bargained for when the precogs predict a murder to be perpetrated by none other than John Anderton (Cruise), one of the precrime police officers. Anderton becomes a fugitive as he desperately tries to prove his innocence… the thing is, we’re not really sure if he’s innocent or not. And neither is he.

Minority Report looks very similar in style to A.I. Spielberg really loves working with cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and together they give the picture a washed-out, grainy look, with soft white lights that shine brightly from the background. It definitely has a film-noir feel at times. The composition of many of the shots in the film are brilliant… there are so many moments where you just wish you could do a freeze frame to admire or analyze one particular image on its own.

Of course, the film just moves so fast at some points, that you are unable to get overly attached to any of the images you see. The action scenes in the film are amazing… Spielberg knows how to keep us on the edge of our seat, and the shot of adrenaline keeps the film from getting bogged down in postulation and theory.

The theory is interesting too though, and that is what makes Minority Report special. The balance of eye-popping action sequences and special effects with thought-provoking ideas is what science-fiction is all about. The plot twists and turns back on itself a few times and it requires a bit of work to keep up, but you are well rewarded for your efforts. Minority Report gets you thinking about issues like law enforcement and predestiny, which of course leads to some religious discussion (this is a Spielberg movie, after all). The idea of the 3 precogs sitting in a tank, churning out psychic visions of murders one after another, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, seems a little preposterous… but this movie makes you believe that it is possible, and by getting you to ignore details like this, it opens you up to see the bigger picture.

As far as the acting, Cruise delivers an adequate performance as himself. He suits the film well, he manages to get us all behind him, which is important. And apparently he did most of the stunts himself, which is somewhat admirable. He’s no Jackie Chan, but he certainly fills the role of a futuristic cop quite well. The lesser known Colin Farrell plays a pivotal role as Detective Ed Witwer, and he does a bang up job too.

I can’t say this movie was absolutely perfect… there were moments near the end where it seemed a little longer than necessary perhaps. But Minority Report is, without question, the best movie that I have seen so far this year, and considering that it is by all accounts a “summer blockbuster”, I think that really says a lot about the quality of this film, and the talent of the people who made it. It’s one of those movies that I just can’t wait to see again. — Sean