Instinct is a visual allegory of Hollywood screenwriters inspiration drainage.
Dr. Caulder (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a young and ambitious shrink who wants to prove himself. To reach his goal, he chooses a high media profile case involving Dr. Powell (Anthony Hopkins). This former anthropologist specialised in gorillas is now confined in a jail's mental institution because of murder charges. This film promises a confrontation between two strong minds, where one will try to unlock the other's mysteries.
This pseudo psychological confrontation is in fact a vulgar compilation in both plot and acting.
Now that we have been fortunate enough to enjoy "Best of the 80's" music complilations, here's a "Best of the 80's" film. With Instinct, See the best of Silence of the Lambs, Gorillas in the Mist, Greystoke and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest!! would be a catchy slogan for the preview.
from Silence of the Lambs:
-Psychological confrontation between a rookie and a caged Anthony Hopkins:
-Dangerous use of pens
-Disturbing prison hall
from Gorillas in the Mist:
-The anthropologist studies and befriends gorillas.
-The equilibrium is broken after "bad humans" interfere.
from Greystoke:
-He lives isolated in the jungle in a semi-wild state.
-Difficult return to civilization.
from One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest:
-He is confined to mental institution where he is drugged.
-He is harrassed by a tyrannical prison warden.
-He becomes the hero of the inmates.
Add a Disney ingredient by giving the heros two funny and stupid "sidekick" prisoners, like in every good animated feature.
As for the acting, the gorillas' professionalism eclipses the two trained animals Anthony and Cuba. Hopkins gives us the compilation of his career, by palming off his old Anibal Lecter act under the guise of his old Zorro appearance. If one can't contest his psychopath accents, he does, however, \ miss Christopher Lambert's primitive look in the eye. He, in fact, spends most of his time keeping his head down behind his long hair, as if he was trying to hide from the shame of such a movie.
Regarding (Cuba Gooding Jr.), rarely have I laughed so much in a theater. The spark he has in his eyes reminds me of the spark of the eyes of a dead cow. He tries in vain to act like Tom Cruise in a Tom Cruise-type role. But not everybody can be Tom Cruise. The more he gets involved in his acting the more we laugh. You must personally witness the scene where he runs up and down the stairs of the classroom, spouting off his research findings, arms outstretched. However, not everything is so negative: to know he is an Academy Award winner suddenly makes me dream that I will also one day brandish the little golden statue under a rain of applause.
As for the directing, the film looks like a Menthos commercial. When you know that John Turteltaub directed the unforgettable Phenomenon, Cool Runnings and 3 Ninjas, you figure that realism and minimalism are not his main concerns.
Finally, the movie features some humongous mistakes.
In less than a minute the movie contradicts itself. While Anthony Hopkins becomes enraged with Cuba Gooding Jr. while trying to demonstrate to him that he was accepted among gorillas as a humanbeing and not as an animal, the flashback scene that follows shows him getting rid of his last human artifacts: his binoculars and machete.
I am also still wondering how a penniless escaped prisoner from an American mental institute can be the in the African jungle in the next scene.
Mystery of mysteries, as in the existence of such a movie.
Instinct review
