Minority Report (2002)

Directed by Steven Spielberg. Starring Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Samantha Morton, Colin Farrell, Kathryn Morris, Neal McDonough, Steve Harris, Peter Stormare, Lois Smith, Patrick Kilpatrick, Tim Blake Nelson, Jessica Capshaw, Daniel London. [PG-13]

The year is 2054, and Cruise stars as the captain of D.C.’s PreCrime police unit, a department specializing in the prevention of crimes before they take place using the recorded visions of a trio of clairvoyants called Precogs. But when the Precogs envision Cruise as a future murderer of a man he doesn’t even know, he’s forced to go on the run, ambitious Department of Justice agent Farrell on his trail. Terrific fusion of heady ideas and electric excitement, questioning free will and the ambiguities of preventive law enforcement while also delivering suspenseful chases and visceral action. Spielberg’s fondness for backlighting and photorealism would weaken some of his later pictures, but it’s used well here, with a fluid, scrutinizing camera capturing bleached colors on a sleek but harsh canvas, inhabited by technological advances that have largely proven just as prescient as the strongest Precog, Agatha (Morton). A tighter third act and a revised ending (only Spielberg…) might have made this a science fiction masterpiece, but be grateful for close calls (especially when using foresight to escape pursuers in a mall). Inspired by a Philip K. Dick short story, and followed by a short-lived television series. Keep eyes peeled for a few famous faces on the subway; Capshaw is Spielberg’s stepdaughter.

90/100