Instinct (1999)
January 23rd, 2005
I have been some time trying to get my point across about this regression concept to people and finally I find a film that illustrates it. Now, I don’t know how you feel about Anthony Hopkins, whether or not you think he is a good actor or not. He is to me one of the best actors if not “the” best actor I have ever known, therefore my judgement of this film is somewhat biased.
To break the story down into an understandable plot, all I’d really need to say is: Anthony Hopkins plays the role of a man who finds himself regressed to a state where he is accepted by a family of gorillas. Though, through an incident with some poachers he finds himself being held for murder in which the whole of the film is set through psychoanalysis. The story was as predictable as the title. Danny Elfman doing the audio was irritating and furthermore you could see the end from a mile away. However, this film was great, filled with flaws and could of been done a million times better, but who cares? I loved it.
It isn’t really a film for everyone; I’m sure a film about a man who acts like an ape isn’t to everyone’s palette.
On a side note: I used to think Danny Elfman as a great film music composer but I’m beginning to find him irritating. His music always sounds the same, I’m certain you could make a “Danny Elfman film music maker” plug-in for home video editing in the future since it is so simple to put together. I wont take this bit back though, his music for Batman and all other dark films of the like (e.g. Edward Scissorhands) are wonderful, they just get boring when the film tempo changes and the music stays exactly the same.