Instinct (1999)

As a moviewatcher who yearns for really gripping and powerful storytelling, I am more often than not disappointed by what Hollywood produces. But Instinct, in my opinion, has found a place among those few movies that completely captivate me and pull me into the story itself.

While Instinct has lots to offer any viewer, environmentalists and animal rights sympathizers will find particular meaning in the story. I cannot say more, for part of the fun in watching this movie is to figure out the mystery as the characters do.

Finally, I feel it necessary to point out that this movie is loosely based off a book of equal quality: Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. Go read it. Trust me.

Fmovies: A friend and I saw a sneak preview of INSTINCT last night. The film stars Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr. and looked like a thriller about an anthropologist who went to Africa and wound up living with gorillas instead of just studying them. It was much more.

Hopkins' character, Dr. Ethan Powell, is accused of the murders of several Africans. Having been held in a Rwandan prison for a year, he's then extradited to the U.S. and put in a lovely prison in the insane department. Donald Sutherland (looking mighty fine!) is a noted professor of psychiatry at a nearby University, and Gooding is his pet resident, Dr. Theo Calder. When Sutherland's department is asked by the feds to do a psych evaluation, Gooding as Calder researches the case and begs to be allowed to do the work. Calder has been shown at this point to be a brilliant, ambitious resident with a sterling career ahead, and so Sutherland gives him the chance.

What develops from there is a wonderfully written, exquisitely acted story, interweaving the sessions with Powell and Calder with the life of the prison and its insane inmates. Further woven into the fabric is the story of what happened to Powell in Africa. In the African scenes, Stan Winston's work on the apes is incredibly realistic and never cartoonish. Danny Elfman's score (I don't always like Elfman, but did enjoy the Batman score) is also a beautiful accompaniment to these scenes, though a little heavy in other parts of the film.

It's hard to explain the refreshingly intelligent and moving and thoughtful script of this film. Issues such as what is really civilized behavior, the pack as family mentality, and humanity vs. inhumanity are explored with depth but never with a heavy hand. The performances of Hopkins and Gooding are exceptional. Gooding did a great job with the other film I'd seen him in, JERRY MAGUIRE, but the depths of emotion and the layered aspects of his performance in INSTINCT are incredible.

My friend said after we'd left the theater last night that this came very close to being a Great Film. And she's right. It had a great script and brilliant performances by all, fully realized characters (even the secondary ones), good plot. Where it falls a little, I think, is in the direction. Jon Turteltaub is a competent director who has done films I've enjoyed, such as WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING and PHENOMENON. But in this case, with everything it had going for it, Turteltaub didn't hold the strings tight. The pacing is off in a few places, and a whiff of a subplot involving Gooding's character in a romance with Maura Tierney as Hopkins' daughter fails because you can feel it waffling. Should we leave this subplot in or pull it out? Since they couldn't decide, it leans both ways from scene to scene. This speaks to me of weakness in the director.

But INSTINCT is a very, very good film. Highly recommended. And those of you who are prone to weep, bring your hankies.

I think this is a GREAT movie. It has a story line that while not complicated, is very different. And it is a great story that is very facinating. There were a number of great character acts too. There are a number of characters in the insane prison from a number of "unknown" actors that really give the movie added personality. It made me want to look up these actors to see what else they do. The scenes with the gorillas were tastefully done, with no over kill that made it look somewhat artificial, which so many movies tend to do. For example, 'Greystoke' starring Christofer Lambert as Tarzan, was an attempt at realism, but had the apes portraying some very human like relationships. Not so with 'Instinct'. The only thing I found spoilt the movie a bit was to suggest that an American insane prison setup would find it necessary, even encouraged, for inmates to be violent to each other. This ridiculous aspect brought the quality of the movie down a notch or two. The relationship between Hopkins and Gooding was fantastic. And the intense scene between them involving 'duck tape' really brought forth the message the movie was giving. SO, why is the movie more well known??? I guess the movie promoters just didn't do their job very well. OH WELL!!! Movie gets 8/10 from me.

Instinct fmovies. Dear reader,

this movie is fully packed with meaning. The title gives out very little about the true nature of this remarkable work of Jon Turteltaub. Apart from the excellent acting of both the main characters (Hopkins and Cuba Gooding) and the secondary roles, the movie is based on a script of rare quality.

This movie is certainly not going to be appreciated by everyone, certainly not by those unable to honestly look into the modern society and the workings of it, and their role in that society. This movie asks for soul-searching, and unless you are ready for it, unless you are ready to "give up control", you most probably won't like it.

I did like it, thanks also to the fact that I already have meditated on the issues the film raises, earlier in my life. This film is capable of polarizing, because it contains a lot of unpleasant truth, that humanity should accept in order to really advance. This is an important movie, a very strong statement on today's society's relationshipt to nature and it's inhabitants. In the same time, it's analyzing the question of imprisonment and the treatment of inmates. It also raises questions about friendship and loyalty in a way never seen before.

If you have not seen the movie and wonder whether you should, I will give you a hint without spoiling anything: if you didn't like Princess Mononoke, you will not like this movie, either.

I sincerely believe this movie has been under-rated. Instinct is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It invites people to meditate about the meaning of freedom and it forces them to travel inside their mind.

Anthony Hopkins is an extraordinary actor and the whole cast is superb. This movie is a gem, it's simply great!

This film really surprised me. I mean REALLY. I mean I knew that Hopkins, Sutherland and Gooding Jr. were good actors and I'd heard about the film, but I was believing it would be nothing special. I WAS wrong. It had been very long, since I had last seen a film, with a message, a meaning and a higher value than entertainment, but this one is it. Maybe it's just because I study psychology, but I really enjoyed this film. It will take away your illusions. Highly recommended.

8 out of 10