Instinct . Tucson Weekly . 06-14-99

Instinct

DIRECTED BY: Jon Turteltaub

REVIEWED: 06-14-99

After The Matrix and The Phantom Menace, I thought we'd have a dearth of "chosen one" references, but Disney keeps the trend alive by offering Cuba Gooding Jr. as its savior of the month. How exciting that men keep choosing men--this time, the smitten one is Anthony Hopkins. He plays Ethan Powell, an anthropologist who communes with gorillas for a couple of years until he is jailed in Rwanda for killing three men. When he's transferred to a psychiatric penitentiary in the United States, Theo (Gooding) is the doctor who attempts to discover Ethan's motives and understand how he was accepted into a simian family. The blossoming doctor-patient relationship is dialogue heavy and relatively free of tension as Ethan recalls his jungle days and teaches Theo "how to live." Most of the trips outside of the prison are disjointed, as Theo visits either his reality-based mentor Ben (Donald Sutherland), or Lyn (Maura Tierney), Ethan's heterosexually recuperative daughter. According to the musical score, every scene contains a highly dramatic moment, so be prepared to laugh, cry and cheer as Ethan sits down, Theo pours a cup of coffee and a gorilla grooms itself.

--Polly Higgns

Full Length Reviews
Instinct
Instinct

Capsule Reviews
Instinct

Other Films by Jon Turteltaub
Phenomenon
While You Were Sleeping

Film Vault Suggested Links
West Beirut
The Dreamlife of Angels
The Crossing Guard

Rate this Film
If you don't want to vote on a film yet, and would like to know how others voted, leave the rating selection as "Vote Here" and then click the Cast Vote button.