IMPOSTOR
  
STARRING: Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe, Vincent D'Onofrio,
Tony Shalhoub, Mekhi Phifer
2002, 96 Minutes, Directed by: Gary Fleder
 Description:
Based on a short story by sci-fi master
Philip K. Dick. Spencer Olham (Gary Sinise) is a weapons designer
suspected of being an alien robot with an assassin's agenda. The year is
2079; Earth is at war with an alien race called the Centauri, and its
dome-sealed cities are intensely monitored by the Earth Security Agency. A
high-tech chase ensues between Olham and his ESA pursuer (Vincent
D'Onofrio), testing the bond of trust between Olham and his physician wife
(Madeleine Stowe). —
Amazon.com
Impostor is the fourth Hollywood flick to be based on Philip K. Dick material,
in this case a short story of his written in the early 1950s. In case you
didn't know this, the movie's opening scrawl informs you of this. This is
not a good sign, since the movie underestimates your intelligence by assuming
that you wouldn't know that beforehand. To be fair, I suppose one can argue
that at least the movie does assume that one can read.) The other movies
were Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990) and the little seen
Screamers
(1996).
All of the above movies, with the exception of Blade Runner (which were
loosely based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) were based on short
stories by the legendary sci-fi writer who unfortunately died before Blade
Runner's release. Impostor is no exception and it shows: much of the movie's
mid-section consists of superfluous padding, mostly the heroes getting
chased around. These action scenes are visual gibberish and devoid of
any suspense.
The original story cleverly dealt with Dick's obsession of what is human
and real, and what isn't. A man is one day accused of not being who he
thinks he is. He is a human bomb instead sent by aliens during an
intergalactic war to infiltrate Earth defenses. The "real" him has been
killed and replaced by a precise replica. The problem is that the new
replica doesn't know this, and is convinced that he is real. Is he, or
isn't he, who he thinks he is? Unfortunately whereas the dilemma in the short story
may have been real and sustained, here audiences sees the "surprise
twist ending" all the way from one of Jupiter's moons.
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"The hand-held camerawork will have you throwing up in your popcorn!" |
All of this is made much worse by how director Gary Fleder (of
Kiss the
Girls "fame") who thinks that he is still at film school and
wants to prove that he knows how to edit a movie. Most of today's action
movies are visual gibberish, with scenes that wouldn't look out of place
in a music video for MTV, but lacks any context. Audiences simply cannot
follow what exactly is happening onscreen and looses all interest. (Rent
Tomb Raider and Raiders of the Lost Ark one day and compare them to see
what I mean. Or rather, don't rent Tomb Raider if you know what's good
for you.) Nowadays action movies have lots of action, but very little
suspense.
Unfortunately Fleder not merely directs the action sequences in this
manner, but the entire movie. "Look!" I can hear him exclaim.
"I have discovered an editing suite - and I know how it works!"
Amateur night at the movies indeed. Halfway through the movie I was feeling
nauseous, wondering whether it was something I ate. It was only then that
I realized that it was the movie. An average static shot in Impostor lasts
four seconds. I know, I started timing them when I grew bored with the
story. If it takes Fleder longer than four seconds before he cuts to the
next scene, then you can be sure that he will swirl the camera about.
All this onscreen movement was making me seasick!
If
Blair Witch Project's hand-held camera work made you feel sick, then
you're definitely advised to steer clear of Impostor. This one will have
you throwing up in your popcorn. To be fair, friends of mine who saw the
movie said that I exaggerate that the editing didn't bother them at all.
Maybe I sat too close to the cinema screen. If you watch this one day
on video it probably shouldn't be all that bad. But the frenetic editing
still can't disguise that if one expects a good action movie based on
a Philip K. Dick story one must instead check out
Minority Report.
Take my word however: one day someone will show director Fleder Russian
director Andrei Tarkovsky's last film, the 1986 The
Sacrifice. It has
an opening shot of approximately ten minutes in which Tarkovsky neither
swings nor moves the camera about and our attention is held by great dialogue
and excellent acting. It will simply blow Fleder's cortex - who could
have thought! - and he'd have to be hospitalised, sparing us the fate
of any further "Directed by Gary Fleder" flicks . . .
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