Violence/Gore: A couple of murdered hookers, and one memorable scene of a Stranger crushed between two buildings.

Sex/Nudity: Rufus Sewell’s bare ass, a dead hooker’s boobs, and another (soon-to-be-dead) hooker undressing. Very brief full frontal nudity.

Best Line: “When was the last time you remember doing something during the day? And I’m not talking about some half-forgotten childhood memory, I mean like yesterday. Last week.”

Score:

In the past several years, several movies have dealt with the subjectivity of the nature of reality. The Wachowski Brothers’ MATRIX trilogy, Josef Rusnak’s THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR, and David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ all deal with various virtual realities and how their characters act, react, and interact within them. In none of these movies, however, is this theme more powerfully presented than in Alex Proyas’ DARK CITY.

DARK CITY is a pastiche of sci-fi conventions and philosophy, calling to mind the classic OUTER LIMITS episode, “A Feasibility Study.” In this startling vision of a bleak alternate reality, the weighty issues of existentialism and memory blend with a visual homage to Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS - a blend of ’50s art deco seasoned with a heavy hand of Dark Romanticism (’Gothic,’ by the way, means in the style of the fall of Rome and the Early Middle Ages. Dark Romanticism describes the artsy boys in eyeliner and frilly shirts to a T. Sorry, but it’s a pet peeve). Thematically, Proyas also pays his respects to Franz Kafka - DARK CITY is very much an update and rethink of “The Trial,” the story of a man accused of crimes he can’t remember committing, and his pursuit by mysterious enemies with a sinister hidden agenda.

Richard O’Brien once again plays to his strengths, creating a memorably creepy Stranger to haunt the nightmares of viewers long after they watch the film. Rufus Sewell’s squinty-eyed sexuality is tangible in his portrayal of the tortured hero - the human who learns to tune - and Jennifer Connelly is perfect as his smouldering torch singer wife. Proyas’ brisk editing and dialogue leads to a fast-paced, rapid-fire machine gun of a film, both demanding and holding the audience’s attention for its entire runtime of just under two hours.

The visuals and stylistics shine in this city of dark skies, smoky-voiced torch singers, ’30s-style automats, and period fashions and architecture. The dark, claustrophobic atmosphere is shot in a way that almost simulates a colorized black and white photo of the time. Shades of black, white and grey predominate, punctuated with dashes of rich, lustrous color. The scenes of “the tuning” (the Strangers’ method of changing reality to control the minds of the humans in their experiment) are particularly effective, with the smooth warping, morphing and sliding of buildings one into another offering a neat visual metaphor to the mental trickery they perform in the memories of their human “pets.”

Symbolically, DARK CITY’s themes of memory, guilt, and innocence are brought to vivid life by its stunning visuals. The Dark City itself is a symbol of the “rat race” and of being controlled by forces larger than yourself - “man keeping you down,” if you will. Shell Beach is the foil for Dark City - a world of sunshine, innocence, and childhood. And it’s remarkably fitting that not only can no one remember how to get there, but that the lead character spends the entire movie trying to find his way back.

In this stunning world of darkness where past, present and future enmesh and intertwine, and the very nature of reality itself is subject to question, it’s easy to forget your own time and place. DARK CITY is time well spent - isn’t that what a virtual reality is all about?

DVD Extras: This is one of the more clever menu designs I’ve ever seen. Fully animated menus morph one character into another as you change sections. The DVD includes both wide and full-screen versions, and the chapter selection section offers animated previews of the chapter contents. Also included are cast and crew bios, a scavenger hunt game that reveals an Easter Egg, and two different commentary tracks - one by Roger Ebert and one by director Proyas and other members of the crew. Also included are an essay by comic great Neil Gaiman, a portfolio of set designs, critical comparisons to Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS, and star highlight clips for both Kiefer Sutherland and William Hurt.

SS