Watching Sir Anthony Hopkins is always a treat. This Oscar winning thespian makes even second-rate psychological pabulum like "While You Were Sleeping" director Jon Turteltaub's "Instinct" shine. Cast as Ethan Powell, Hopkins plays an eminent anthropologist who disappeared into the Rwandan jungles under mysterious circumstances while studying a tribe of mountain gorillas. Two years later, authorities finally tracked down Powell and found him living with the apes. After Powell killed two trigger-happy park rangers, officials arrested, convicted and incarcerated him for a double homicide. Eventually, Powell is extradited to America for a psychological evaluation. Oscar winner Cuba Gooding, Jr., plays the psychiatric resident who struggles to learn what ignited Powell and why the famous primatologist has refused to talk since his arrest.
Ostensibly, "Instinct" takes place in the unsavory, claustrophobic confines of the psychotic ward at Harmony Bay Correctional Facility. This Florida maximum security penitentiary rivals the lock-ups in both "The Snake Pit" (1948) and "The Midnight Express" (1978). Rwandan officials have turned the well-known researcher back over to U.S. authorities, and Powell is flown back to meet his old friend and colleague, Ben Hillard (Donald Sutherland of "M.A.S.H."), for an evaluation. Hillard's ambitious protégé, Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding, Jr., of "Jerry Maguire") requests the assignment. Caulder knows that success with Powell will garner not only professional accolades but also a book deal. Meanwhile, when he arrives at Miami Airport, Powell goes berserk after an alarm system frightens him. Consequently, authorities confine him at Harmony Bay and Caulder begins his evaluation. Initially, Powell wants nothing to do with Caulder. Eventually, during a series of interviews, Caulder and Powell forge a friendship, and Caulder feels confident enough that he can get his patient out of prison and back at home with his daughter Lynn (Maura Tierney of "Liar Liar") and her mother.
Nothing rewarding is won easily in a good movie. Theo Caulder finds life at Harmony Bay nothing like school at the University of Miami. Hillard reminds Caulder that as psychiatric resident he is only there to appraise Powell, not win his release. Nevertheless, Caulder launches a crusade. Harmony Bay with its callous warden, overcrowded conditions, sadistic guards, and burned-out staff psychiatrist hamper him. In the process, Caulder converts psychiatrist John Murray (George Dzundza of "The Beast"), aggravates Warden Keefer (John Aylward of "Finding Graceland"), indicts Guard Dacks (John Ashton of "King Kong Lives"), and wins over the poor inmates who have suffered from abuse and neglect.
Anthony Hopkins brings his Hannibal Lector persona to the role, but he looks nothing like Lector. In fact, Hopkins resembles Sean Connery from his early scenes in "The Rock." Ethan Powell sports shaggy, shoulder-length, gray hair as well as an Ernst Hemingway beard. He dominates "Instinct" with his steely-eyed presence and his crisp dialogue delivery. Essentially, Powell serves as the human equivalent of a moral compass. Wrongly imprisoned, he represents a character as much as a cause, but Hopkins never lets you overlook the human qualities in Ethan Powell. Happily, "Instinct" winks at the audience occasionally where Powell is concerned. When Rwandan authorities load him into a truck, they put him in with two vicious Dobermans. At the end of the trip, the authorities find Powell lounging in the rear with the dogs resting comfortably on his lap! If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then director John Turteltaub and "Sharkey's Machine" scenarist Gerald DiPego have flattered the best. They have contrived "Instinct" from bits and pieces of better movies, such as "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Gorillas in the Mist," "Silence of the Lambs," "Cool Hand Luke," "The Wild Child," "The Shawshank Redemption," "Mighty Joe Young," and "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan." Incredibly, their strategy works. "Instinct" is as much a saga about the trouble characters on-screen as it is about the human condition. Indeed, you've heard everything in this movie before, but Turteltaub and DiPego recycle it with an air of sincerity that makes it quite touching. They pace the plot so that just when you think that everything is going to work out wonderfully, the bottom drops out. In this respect, "Instinct" resembles the 1965 Sean Connery World War II prison saga "The Hill." "Instinct" has a lot on its mind, and most of it is reassuring clichés. The gorillas display more altruism than humans. Meanwhile, people behave considerably more savage than animals. Powell condemns mankind as takers who exploit. He gorillas that he studied, for example, live in peace. Humans, on the other hand, spoil for war. Powell teaches Caulder that modern-day man enjoys little freedom. Instead, the illusion of freedom blinds him. He braves a daily gauntlet of withering career pressures that require conformity to authority. As a result, the messages and issues are familiar, facile, but feature enough truth to salve the soul. Turteltaub orchestrates the clichés and sentiments so adroitly that you sympathize with the protagonist even when you know that you're being shamelessly manipulated about their plight.
Although Hopkins and Gooding dominate the action, they get great support from Donald Sutherland at his avuncular best as Caulder's boss, Maura Tierney, and George Dzundza. John Ashton, best known as Eddie Murphy's sidekick in the "Beverly Hills Cop" franchise, excels as a ruthless prison guard who pits the inmates against themselves to maintain control over them. Ashton is every bit as despicable as Louis Fletcher's strong-willed Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" As Warden Keefer, Aylward spends less time on-screen than Ashton, but he uses his moments to convey a chilling air of menace.
Ultimately, "Instinct" ruminates about man's depravity. Sure, the movie sounds like a sermon at times, but "Instinct" shows more heart than most movies, and you leave it feeling good about yourself even when you know it is artifice masquerading as art. The naïve happy ending is enough to make you applaud, even when you realize that it is childishly preposterous. Nevertheless, the satisfaction derived from such a wrap-up makes "Instinct" all the more gratifying.
Ostensibly, "Instinct" takes place in the unsavory, claustrophobic confines of the psychotic ward at Harmony Bay Correctional Facility. This Florida maximum security penitentiary rivals the lock-ups in both "The Snake Pit" (1948) and "The Midnight Express" (1978). Rwandan officials have turned the well-known researcher back over to U.S. authorities, and Powell is flown back to meet his old friend and colleague, Ben Hillard (Donald Sutherland of "M.A.S.H."), for an evaluation. Hillard's ambitious protégé, Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding, Jr., of "Jerry Maguire") requests the assignment. Caulder knows that success with Powell will garner not only professional accolades but also a book deal. Meanwhile, when he arrives at Miami Airport, Powell goes berserk after an alarm system frightens him. Consequently, authorities confine him at Harmony Bay and Caulder begins his evaluation. Initially, Powell wants nothing to do with Caulder. Eventually, during a series of interviews, Caulder and Powell forge a friendship, and Caulder feels confident enough that he can get his patient out of prison and back at home with his daughter Lynn (Maura Tierney of "Liar Liar") and her mother.
Nothing rewarding is won easily in a good movie. Theo Caulder finds life at Harmony Bay nothing like school at the University of Miami. Hillard reminds Caulder that as psychiatric resident he is only there to appraise Powell, not win his release. Nevertheless, Caulder launches a crusade. Harmony Bay with its callous warden, overcrowded conditions, sadistic guards, and burned-out staff psychiatrist hamper him. In the process, Caulder converts psychiatrist John Murray (George Dzundza of "The Beast"), aggravates Warden Keefer (John Aylward of "Finding Graceland"), indicts Guard Dacks (John Ashton of "King Kong Lives"), and wins over the poor inmates who have suffered from abuse and neglect.
Anthony Hopkins brings his Hannibal Lector persona to the role, but he looks nothing like Lector. In fact, Hopkins resembles Sean Connery from his early scenes in "The Rock." Ethan Powell sports shaggy, shoulder-length, gray hair as well as an Ernst Hemingway beard. He dominates "Instinct" with his steely-eyed presence and his crisp dialogue delivery. Essentially, Powell serves as the human equivalent of a moral compass. Wrongly imprisoned, he represents a character as much as a cause, but Hopkins never lets you overlook the human qualities in Ethan Powell. Happily, "Instinct" winks at the audience occasionally where Powell is concerned. When Rwandan authorities load him into a truck, they put him in with two vicious Dobermans. At the end of the trip, the authorities find Powell lounging in the rear with the dogs resting comfortably on his lap! If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then director John Turteltaub and "Sharkey's Machine" scenarist Gerald DiPego have flattered the best. They have contrived "Instinct" from bits and pieces of better movies, such as "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Gorillas in the Mist," "Silence of the Lambs," "Cool Hand Luke," "The Wild Child," "The Shawshank Redemption," "Mighty Joe Young," and "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan." Incredibly, their strategy works. "Instinct" is as much a saga about the trouble characters on-screen as it is about the human condition. Indeed, you've heard everything in this movie before, but Turteltaub and DiPego recycle it with an air of sincerity that makes it quite touching. They pace the plot so that just when you think that everything is going to work out wonderfully, the bottom drops out. In this respect, "Instinct" resembles the 1965 Sean Connery World War II prison saga "The Hill." "Instinct" has a lot on its mind, and most of it is reassuring clichés. The gorillas display more altruism than humans. Meanwhile, people behave considerably more savage than animals. Powell condemns mankind as takers who exploit. He gorillas that he studied, for example, live in peace. Humans, on the other hand, spoil for war. Powell teaches Caulder that modern-day man enjoys little freedom. Instead, the illusion of freedom blinds him. He braves a daily gauntlet of withering career pressures that require conformity to authority. As a result, the messages and issues are familiar, facile, but feature enough truth to salve the soul. Turteltaub orchestrates the clichés and sentiments so adroitly that you sympathize with the protagonist even when you know that you're being shamelessly manipulated about their plight.
Although Hopkins and Gooding dominate the action, they get great support from Donald Sutherland at his avuncular best as Caulder's boss, Maura Tierney, and George Dzundza. John Ashton, best known as Eddie Murphy's sidekick in the "Beverly Hills Cop" franchise, excels as a ruthless prison guard who pits the inmates against themselves to maintain control over them. Ashton is every bit as despicable as Louis Fletcher's strong-willed Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" As Warden Keefer, Aylward spends less time on-screen than Ashton, but he uses his moments to convey a chilling air of menace.
Ultimately, "Instinct" ruminates about man's depravity. Sure, the movie sounds like a sermon at times, but "Instinct" shows more heart than most movies, and you leave it feeling good about yourself even when you know it is artifice masquerading as art. The naïve happy ending is enough to make you applaud, even when you realize that it is childishly preposterous. Nevertheless, the satisfaction derived from such a wrap-up makes "Instinct" all the more gratifying.