Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig star in the fourth filmed adaptation of Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers. The first two, both called Invasions of the Body Snatchers (1956, 1978) are considered sci-fi classics or near classics, but this is a new adaptation rather than a remake per se. So gone are the pod people. Replacing them are the virus people who become infected after a space shuttle crash. Since our heroes are a psychiatrist and a scientist, they figure out quicker than some that something weird is happening to the people around them. A contagious, but menacing, calm pervades. Worry turns to fear, and fear fights with restlessness, since the virus takes hold during sleep.
The movie was reportedly the subject of a studio hatchet job. Warner Brothers replaced nominal director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) with James McTeigue (V for Vendetta), who shot new action scenes. While the resulting film is perfectly coherent and reasonably entertaining, parts seem out of place. What’s the point of the scene where the two stars discuss whether they’ll be friends or lovers, when the issue never comes up again and has no effect on the plot? Presumably the execs figured they could deep six most of the existential shit, throw in a few action scenes, and convince people that this was the next summer popcorn flick. Judging by the opening weekend grosses, it didn’t work. More to the point, the movie is caught midway between two visions. The action stuff is okay but seems to have come at the expense of further exploring the single idea in the film. That is, can humanity’s most destructive instincts be overcome without also destroying creativity and individuality?
This Invasion should be all about building upon this theme and ratcheting up the silent paranoia that grips the uninfected. But, just like with that disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, large chunks of time are spent on a parent trying to rescue a trapped kid. Will even one person watch this movie and think, hey maybe Nicole won’t be able to save her pre-teen son from being turned into an automaton by her evil ex-husband? You’ve got the whole world being threatened—show that, show what the government is doing, show what people in Tokyo, or Johannesburg, are doing. All we get is meager media reports.
The saving virtues are that the characters are mostly believable, their behavior doesn’t seem false, and in certain places the climate of dread is appropriately reproduced. But the paradox in the movie, the way the infected don’t seem to mind, is the fascinating thing that is barely explored. Thus the little what if epilogue will probably produce more mild shrugs than dropping jaws.
IMDB link
reviewed 8/23/07
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