Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Kiefer Sutherland
Kevin Bacon
Julia Roberts
William Baldwin
Oliver Platt (one of those "oh yeah, that guy" guys)
Directed By:
Joel Schumacher
A long, long time ago, in a Hollywood far far away, Joel Schumacher was a decent director. He never great (and by that I mean Cronenberg-great) but he did a few interesting films before selling his soul to Hollywood and shoot the Batman movies that would make comic book geeks nightmare for more than a decade before Christopher Nolan would release THE DARK KNIGHT. Schumacher once did movies like ST-ELMO'S FIRE, THE LOST BOYS and finally FLATLINERS before he started sucking. None of those three movies really beat time, but they are fine pieces of era-specific filmmaking. Their aging process was a little more rocky than for movies like BLADERUNNER for example, but they gained a quirky charm twenty-something years later because they tried to be so serious. But despite the nostalgia factor, FLATLINERS is a very well written story that gave some young actors terrific material to help build their career on. Oh and it's also kinda well shot for a Schumacher movie.
In a weird, post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk world*, some kids are trying to get through medical school, holed up in this old beat-up museum. One of the students, Nelson (Sutherland) is obsessed with death and like the great visionaries of science, he has a plan to find out what happens after the grim reapers passes. He wants to flatline himself in a controlled environment, under the supervision of his friends. David (Bacon), the smart one, tells him to go fuck himself. Joe (Baldwin) the horny frat boy accepts because he has no real character and Rachel accepts also because...well....let's just say she has many unresolved issues and she's desperately hanging on to anything that could set her mind off herself. They all end up helping Nelson anyway (they're curious after all) and fighting over who's gonna be the next one to go under. Because there is something after death. At first, it's not very clear as to what it is, but it's not letting go of them once they've been brought back to the living. Without spoiling anything, let's say that it's not safe to die with unresolved issues.
If FLATLINERS works so well, it's mostly because of screenwriter Peter Filardi. Before it's a good movie, it's a great story, period. The flatlining scenes are all crackling with tension because they are always torn in between the thrill of important discoveries and the obvious danger of what the students do. The ecstasy of absolute truths versus the recklessness of their project. It's a very interesting dynamic. Whenever the students aren't flatlining themselves, they are also endangered, being prowled upon by their ghosts. Joel Schumacher's directing is also surprisingly energetic, with a lot of long, travelling shots and a heavy use of lens filters for the supernatural moments. It's a bit heavy handed, but it's what you got from science-fiction back then. You will get some flashes of BLADERUNNER and JACOB'S LADDER while watching FLATLINERS but it's never being a copycat.
About the dated feeling, well...it's awesome. There's really no other way to put it. I'm all about the eighties when it's done with such style. Part of this success resides in Schumacher's use of Kevin Bacon. I fucking LOVE the Bacon. Partly due to his goofy face that makes it impossible for him to disappear behind his characters, partly because of his funny sounding name and also because he can act a little. With the glorious mop he has for hair in FLATLINERS, there was very little chance I wouldn't like him. Kiefer Sutherland (a very underrated actor, in my opinion) is also very solid as the breakthrough scientist. Julia Roberts is good, but has a more cliche character** and William Baldwin and Oliver Platt are the weakest links. One has a ridiculous storyline, the other has no purpose at all.
FLATLINERS is a suprisingly bulky movie. Its heavy use of philosophical and religious symbolism keeps your mind working and theme behind the storyline travels through the narrative with great strength. Without spoiling anything, I can say that it's that whatever you know, whoever you worship or whatever are your opinions, it's not what's important in life. It's who you are and how you conduct yourself with the others, that will measure your worth as a human being. While it's lacking a clear-enough identity to be called a classic (it's borrowing left and right, just a little but still enough to taint the final product), FLATLINERS is a deceitfully strong movie that relies on a terrific script, on an energetic job from young actors and a director that didn't flush his integrity down the the toilet yet. It's another proof that when everybody works in the same direction, great things can be achieved.
SCORE: 83%
* Nothing of the sort is ever mentioned during the movie, but there are several hints towards cyberpunk. David's army truck, the hospital in a decrepit building, the streets are always deserted except for back alleys full of bums, etc.
** Hollywood was still a little sexist back then...well...really...still is today