Anthony Hopkins plays anthropologist Ethan Powell, who is now held in a high-security prison and refusing to speak. Earnest psychiatrist Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding Jr) attempts to get to know Powell and uncovers the true story of what happened when he spent two years living in the jungle with gorillas. It should really have been called One Flew Over the Gorilla’s Nest or The Silence of the Lambs in the Mist, since there are hints of those Hannibal Lecter, Dianne Fossey and Randle McMurphy stories wrapped up in this narrative.
There are interesting themes about freedom and social control, but there’s too much about the dysfunctional prison society (and inmates) and too little about Powell’s psychological development. It’s also hammy in places. Plus, the music is somewhat jarring.
Donald Sutherland is a wasted as a professor who the plot doesn’t really require. Gooding is so-so: one-dimensional until a sudden and unexpected outpouring of emotion is unleashed at the end. But that emotion doesn’t seem warranted by what has gone before. Hopkins is as magnetically watchable as ever, even with a silly beard and even when the material is plain silly.
