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I was talking with my friend Garth last week about the subjective nature of film reviewing (and watching, for that matter). While most critiques are couched in objective terms (all the better to seem authoritative), it's indisputable that people's reactions to a movie are strongly colored by their own biases: what sort of humor they like, what they find offensive or troubling, what their dreams or fantasies are, and even who they think is beautiful. That's not to say there aren't objective measurements--most people can agree about whether the cinematography is striking or if a particular actor is strong or if the dialogue is witty. Even there, however, a personal bias can enter the fray. I'll never forget the time an otherwise intelligent woman tried to argue that Keanu Reeves was a great actor.

I bring this up because these personal factors will have a particularly large impact on what you think of The Cell, a new serial-killer movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Vince Vaughn. First, though, let's get our facts straight.

Lopez (Out of Sight) plays Catherine Deane, a child therapist who uses a form of virtual reality to enter her comatose clients' minds and bring them out of their shell. Vaughn (Swingers) is Peter Novak, an FBI agent who's tracking down a particularly disturbed serial killer. How disturbed? Well, Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio, Men in Black) likes to kidnap his women, then videotape them as they drown in his custom-made tank. Unfortunately, that's not all. After they're dead, he uses bleach to make them doll-like and finds sexual gratification by suspending himself (using steel hooks embedded in his skin) over their dead, bleached bodies while watching their death videos. If you find the description gross (I hope you do), watching it is even worse.

Early in the movie, Carl falls into a catatonic coma. Why he does isn't clear, but the upshot is that, even though he's soon captured by the FBI, there's no way he can reveal where his latest victim is located. She's alive for now, but Stargher's automated drowning system only gives the FBI about 24 hours to find her. Enter Catherine Deane, who volunteers to go into Carl's mind and try to unearth the location. 

The scenes inside the virtual reality system are visually stunning. With a mind-blowing use of color and large spaces, director Tarsem (he has a one-word name) conjures a world that is amazing to behold but also evocative of what a serial-killer's subconscious might be like. Audiences of The Cell will not be surprised that Tarsem is best-known for his award-winning music videos (particularly REM's "Losing My Religion"). The bizarre and striking images that often populate MTV and its ilk are here brought to big-screen proportions in breathtaking ways. The opening sequence of Jennifer Lopez dressed in white, riding a jet-black horse in front of enormous, orange sand dunes is almost worth the price of admission. Near the end of the movie, when we go into Catherine's mind, her Catholic-inspired subconscious is drenched in reds, pinks, and powder blues. Even the movie's frame becomes a flower-laced holy card.

In the end, though, these images don't add up to much beyond their surface pleasures. There's little attempt to integrate them into the narrative. Why a Catholic motif at the end? I have no idea (no one seems to be Catholic), particularly when that transitions into a full-body baptismal sequence. It might seem petty to point out that Catholics practice baptism by sprinkling, not immersion, except that it's so indicative of the movie's use of imagery. Throw something striking on the screen, even if it doesn't fit. Maybe Tarsem is trying to say something about our collective unconscious, but I suspect it's just the music-video part of his personality coming to the fore. 

So, are you going to like this movie? To be honest, I have no idea. I'm not sure whether I like it. I have a particular aversion to serial-killer flicks, and this one's no different. It is deeply unsettling, and the almost constant use of a woman's dying screams doesn't make it any easier to take. And while Lopez and Vaughn are both solid (Lopez particularly so), they don't have any chemistry together, so their relationship falls flat. But the visual side of the movie is so engrossing that it might make up for its many negatives. Of course, if you like serial-killer movies or are just a fan of bizarre visuals, then adjust your potential grade accordingly.