Cuba Gooding Jr. and Anthony Hopkins in "Instinct."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Donald Sutherland Director: Jon Turteltaub Rated: R, with violence and profanity Length: 124 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(June 4, 1999) -- If you're going to Instinct to see a variation of The Silence of the Lambs, with Anthony Hopkins reinstalled as Hannibal Lecter, forget about it.

The previews have pitched the movie that way, but that's not what you'll find. And I, for one, am glad. (The real Hannibal will return soon enough in Thomas Harris's sequel novel, due next week.)

Instead, this psychological thriller could more realistically be titled One Flew Over the Gorillas in the Mist.

It mostly takes place in a mental hospital. The star patient is Ethan Powell (Hopkins), an animal behaviorist who once lived for two years in the midst of a family of African primates.

Arrested for murdering two park rangers in Rwanda, Powell has been shipped to a Florida prison for the criminally insane.

He has retreated into a world of grim silence, refusing to discuss his case and making no attempt to communicate with his stateside wife and grown daughter.

His only signs of life are occasional flashes of animalistic violence against the guards who brutalize him.

Cuba Gooding Jr. stars as Theo Caulder, the young psychiatrist who tries to break through Powell's wall of silence to discover what really happened in the African jungles. Donald Sutherland co-stars as Theo's mentor, Dr. Ben Hillard.

Through Theo's diligent digging, we eventually see, in flashbacks, Powell's jungle life with the gorillas.

But the mystery of what triggered his violence is no mystery. Too bad the film depends so much on this payoff, which is utterly predictable, especially if you've seen Gorillas in the Mist.

Director Jon Turteltaub and screenwriter Gerald DiPego also overload the overly long tale with superfluous subplots about other mentally ill inmates and the inept prison administrators, physicians and guards.

And they stack the emotional deck by placing Powell in the most decrepit and cruel asylum since Olivia de Havilland was thrown into The Snake Pit in 1948.

Instinct does explore some intriguing ideas, which are showcased in the fine performances of Hopkins and Gooding. The film's best moments find the two men developing mutual respect as they debate animal versus human behavior, life in the wild versus civilization.

But even as a romanticized Garden of Eden is fondly recalled, Theo rightly asks, "How do we go back?"

Instinct provides no answer -- only an idealistic wish that one is possible.