Strange Days

Set in the two days leading up to New Year's Day 2000, Strange Days stars Ralph Fiennes as Lenny Nero, a former vice cop now dealing in the era's drug of choice: virtual reality clips called SQUIDs wired directly into the user's brain. He is also a user himself, compelled to relive his failed love affair with a reformed hooker turned singer named Faith (Juliette Lewis). As the big "2K" approaches, however, Lenny finds himself forced to deal with the present. He ends up in possession of two clips with serious implications: one which shows a friend being raped and murdered, and another which includes evidence in the death of an outspoken rap artist (Glenn Plummer) which could set the city ablaze. Lenny must rely on his friends Lornette "Mace" Mason (Angela Bassett) and ex-partner Max Peltier (Tom Sizemore) to put a puzzle together and prevent the millennium from ending before it begins.

Everything that is best about Strange Days comes down to its central story. The virtual reality clips are presented as point-of-view shots, and a few of them are extremely well staged, disorienting, and filled with an energy that makes the appeal of the technology evident. The design of 1999 Los Angeles goes easy on gee-whiz gadgetry and emphasizes a near-constant state of siege, and an omnipresent cadre of riot police. Fiennes is very good as the jittery hustler with a shot at redemption, delivering his slick patter with a practiced professionalism. And of course there is the subtext of racism, conspiracy, and the L.A.P.D. which will recall high-profile controversies like the Rodney King and O. J. Simpson trials.

With such a solid story and main character at the core of the film, it is a crime that Cameron and director Kathryn Bigelow can't keep it tight. Perhaps out of fear of making Strange Days too gimmicky or high concept, Cameron and his co-scripter Jay Cocks spend far too much time on Lenny's attempts to win back Faith, and the beatings by bodyguards of Faith's new boyfriend (The Crow heavy Michael Wincott) which follow each attempt. Juliette Lewis is so unappealing as Faith that Lenny's obsession doesn't make sense, and Cameron could have made the redemption angle work just as well without her. There are also a few lurches into wretched excess, including the gratuitous psycho snuff rapist subplot and a slow-motion beating of Angela Bassett by baton-wielding cops which goes off the self-importance meter. The latter is part of Cameron's personal "can't we all just get along" message, sealed with a multiracial kiss as some metaphorical dawning of a new age. It may be cathartic, but it's grossly false.

Dystopias inevitably attract a certain cult following, and there will be those who love Bigelow and Cameron's dark vision with its silver lining. I might have been one of them if Strange Days had been leaner and meaner. Cameron might have felt he was doing his audience a favor by cutting the racial tension with an unrequited love story or two, but a few minutes watching Fiennes moon over Lewis in her chain-mail body stocking is enough to make you start itching for someone to pick up a gun or start wire tripping. Preferably both. - Scott Renshaw