THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR
By Steve Biodrowski
The third time is definitely not the charm for THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR, the third cyberspace film to reach screens in 1999 (after THE MATRIX and EXISTENZ). Whereas the Wachowski Brothers used their premise as an excuse for outrageously entertaining action sequences, and David Cronenberg probed the deeper question of what really constitutes reality, THIRTEEN FLOOR is awash in a film noir aesthetic that is interesting to watch but ultimately empty and often misguided. For example, the film's virtual reality world is painted in drab tones to suggest a faded past appropriate to its 1937 setting, but the soaring music score virtually screams at the audience, telling us how gloriously beautiful it all is.
The story is more or less a rehash of the far superior DARK CITY: A man with memory problems (Craig Bierko, who would go on to star in SCARY MOVIE 4) is pursued by the police for a murder. While seeking to exonerate himself, he finds that his world is actually an artificial construct, and people from the real world drop in from time to time, taking possession of the virtual characters in order to act out fantasies (involving sex or violence) they could not get away with in real life. The plot moves along just quick enough to hold attention, but if you actually pay attention you will be a step ahead of the surprise twist: not only is 1937 a virtual reality, so is the present day.
The murder mystery never catches fire, and the whole thing is so uninvolving that the existential dilemma of the characters might as well be an abstract theory under consideration in a freshman philosophy class. When it is all over, you will find yourself wondering why you should care about any of it. One amusing (and presumably accidental) point: Gretchen Moll is unimpressive as a seductively mysterious woman from Europe, but when her character's virtual personality emerges (a white trash check-out clerk at a supermarket), she suddenly seems appealing and attractive.
All in all, this is a mildly interesting idea that is almost totally wasted, thanks to indifferent storytelling and unengaging performances. In fact, the film feels like a picture-perfect example of what was wrong with Hollywood films of the era, in which all the creative effort went into technical matters (like creating a 1937 virtual world) while the really creative aspects were almost totally ignored.
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