K-SCORE: 89
Director: Steven Spielberg
Based on: The Minority Report by Philip K. Dick
Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow
Music: John Williams
Spoiler Level: Minor
“it succeeds in captivating me each time I slide in the disc”
Tom Cruise has a very impressive track record for making entertaining films. In an age where I would never consider rewatching 75% of films I see, Cruise somehow maintains a much higher percentage of success. If what he’s in is bad, at least it’s fun and bad. Of the twenty-five Tom Cruise films I’ve seen, I’d consider rewatching twenty of them. No chance in hell am I putting myself through Vanilla Sky again of course, and I’d be reluctant to take another look at The Color of Money or Valkyrie. Still, that’s really impressive. He’s like the inverse of Daniel Day Lewis. Honestly, he overacts in a great many things, including one of his absolute best films, Minority Report, but I’ve seen the whole thing at least three times, and that surely must speak to its quality.
The characters are nearly caricatures their personalities are so extreme (the creepy warden, the drug dealer with no eyes, the precog caretaker, the herbalist who discovered the precogs, the surgeon - all have exaggerated traits), but in an action blockbuster like this, the script doesn’t have time for subtlety. It has to fit in the premise explanation, exploration, mystery set-up, twists, and a dozen chases and fights. Given the task, I like Minority Report’s attitude toward characters: make ‘em big, make ‘em snappy.
That and the future-sight concept, however, mean that some of this Spielberg SF thriller based on a Philip K. Dick story is ridiculous, but regardless it succeeds in captivating me each time I slide in the disc. The backstory of Anderton’s lost son is borderline cliche, the attempts at meaningful commentary on our legal system are weak, and that which the three precogs see and don’t see is convenient for driving the plot forward to say the least. Forgive those faults though because Minority Report delivers a near-future universe that’s advanced and interesting without being implausible, it delivers a fast-paced story that gives you just enough time to wrap your mind around a new concept before expanding on that concept, and it delivers a plot that is dense and exciting, where old details have new relevance, the elements connect to form a cohesive picture, mysteries have explanations, and character motivations are distinct, consistent, and make sense. Villain to hero and everyone in between. And if it had none of that, Tom Cruise still does a lot of running. Man, that man can run.
“Is it now?”
Agatha is such a great character that she deserves special attention. The scene where they’re escaping a police patrol through a mall and she sees possible futures and guides Anderton by telling him to make little seemingly inconsequential choices that help them get free is brilliant, both in writing and in filmic execution. She also has my favorite line in a film with a ton of memorable one-liners. “Is it now?” Three tiny words and you understand her power and her plight at once, and Samantha Morton speaks them so well that she instantly jumps to the top of the list of sympathetic people depicted on screen.
In a story that features future-foresight, what you really want is exactly what Minority Report provides. If the futures don’t come to pass, then you feel cheated. If they do come to pass, then you feel like watching it all unfold was kind of pointless. That is unless the futures come to pass, but they are fundamentally different from what you initially assumed was true. That’s the gem of genius at the heart of Minority Report’s plot, speaks to Philip K. Dick’s mastery of his craft, and why Spielberg’s cinematic imagining works so well. The conflict is perfectly encapsulated when Anderton learns of Minority Reports, finds Agatha, and starts searching the old files for his, desperate for a future that isn’t the one she predicted, the one he can’t abide. “Where is my Minority Report?” That’s what we’d all want to know, right? If we could see our futures - if there are alternatives, how to change them, if we can. “Where? Where is it? DO I EVEN HAVE ONE?”