A relatively unknown movie despite Kathryn Bigelow as director, James Cameron as writer, Ralph Fienes, Angela Basset and Juliette Lewis in main roles, a pretty original concept (at least at the time) and a good enough story. That's a shame.

Society is, let's say pre apocalyptic. A lot of things are wrong, a lot of racial tensions, probably closer to these days' society than a the time it's depicting (New Year 2000). The atmosphere is grim, amplified by the mostly night time action. Lenny is a great antihero. Ex cop, dealing in illegal memory discs, kinda addict to it, obsessively hung up on Faith, his ex girlfriend even though it's very clearly over, compulsive liar, in debt. Can't even say he's a good guy gone bad, he still betrays his only friends left, and almost everything he does is not from a sense of good, or a desire of justice or anything, he just thinks he can get Faith back with it. That's very different from what we're used to seeing and that makes it very refreshing.

Most other characters are interesting and well built too. Mace, almost desesperately clinging to the drowning Lenny despite his total lack of care. Philo, rich asshole and Faith's new boyfriend. Max, another ex cop and only other friend of Lenny. Faith has little more defining feature than being the love interest, but interestinggly she _really_ doesn't want to hear about Lenny, doesn't need his help rescuing her or anything, that's also a refreshing take and she's plaued really well by Juliette Lewis.

Story starts on the SQUIDs, interesting concept of virtual reality that can make you relive what somebody else experienced. It is dealt illegally, and though it can be anything, mostly revolves around death and sex. Lenny's main job is selling these. It's never really said why it's illegal and it feels like it could have been developped a bit more. In the end it is just a plot device but it is central to the story and very well used in various circumstances (that's why it would have been nice to know more about it): [spoiler]It is Lenny's job. He's addict to his memories with Faith. The disturbing way it's used in Iris' murder. Also to fry people's brains. And the central plot as Jeriko's murder evidence.[/spoiler]

After a beginning tied to Lenny's petty problems, the story gets more cmplex with a friend's murder, dirty cops and a tie-in with the growing societal racial tensions. It's quite ambitious. And again, what's quite refreshing is that Lenny does not become a hero, he's still only interested by one thing, getting Faith back, and she is definitely not interested. The bigger subplot([spoiler]Jeriko One's death, the implications on society, the cat and mouse game with the dirty cops[/spoiler]) is quite good, and the way it ties in with all the rest is very good work.

The rest of the plot, more linked to the relationship between the characters is a little weirder. Good point: Lenny's obsession with Faith, and Mace's fellings for Lenny. Bad point, the final resolution. [spoiler]Max seemed to be a friend of Lenny's. And if him getting with Faith seems totally plausible, that should not directly translate to "let's frame Lenny for murders". And worse, there is nothing that shows that he would be such a psychopath. Killing Iris for money, why not. He's an ex-cop/PI, this world seems dark, there's a lot of violence going on. But to rape her, and film it, and while making her experience the whole thing from his point of view via SQUID, that's extremely disturbing. Same goes for Faith. OK, she really doesn't want to get back with Lenny. But to the point of framing him ? It's definitely not what shows through her actions. And Iris is her friend, she'd have no issue with her new secret boyfriend killing her ? And killing her in this fashion !?[/spoiler] If these characters were such psychopaths it should have been shown in the movie, they were totally not played this way. It has the benefit of being surprising enough at the reveal, but if you think about it for 2 minutes it does not make sense.

Still a very good movie that would benefit from being more widely known.

This was one of the oddest films that I have seen in a long time. The story is set in an apocalyptic 1999 Los Angeles. Crime and rebellion are everywhere and Virtual Reality is the new drug. People's life experiences are recorded onto video using a technology developed by the government but now available on the black market. You can actually slip on a headset and step into someone else's life for a few minutes (or relive your own). That part of the movie was great and I wish that they had explored it further. There is a lot to ponder when it comes to the dangers of this kind of idea. Better yet, a crime is worked into the equation. The problem is all of the themes that are worked in (or in the case of religion, hinted at frequently) that the story seems to fall apart. At various times the movie is part Matrix, Crash, Escape from New York (particularly the constant crimes being committed just behind the lead characters) and Flatliners. Race is one of the more central themes in the movie and I wish that the director had made it more so. I would have subtracted some of the other themes and spent more time portraying how the races were far apart and why a specific incident in the movie was so important. The final scenes seemed rather... forced, including the silly final conflict.

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