Subject Two Review
Philip Chidel's Subject Two is a small-budget, intimate variation on the Frankenstein story, with enough existential insights to sustain it through a handful of slow patches. But in a phenomenon that's very appropriate for a movie about resurrection, the most fascinating thing to watch is the apparent reincarnation of one of Hollywood's most familiar faces. Actor Dean Stapleton, who plays the "mad scientist" role, is a dead ringer for Jack Nicholson circa One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He even wears a similar black winter cap to the one Nicholson wore in that film, making the comparison complete -- and seemingly intentional. Since Stapleton also has a modicum of Nicholson's charisma, it's all the easier to remain engaged in an essentially two-character story. His Dr. Vick is an interesting study. Bunkered away in the mountains, and so reclusive that almost no one in the region has even laid eyes on him, he's nonetheless an exceedingly rational scientist whose every strange behavior is born of experimental necessity. As with any genius on the verge of a landmark breakthrough, his methods are both controversial, and impossible to accomplish in any other way. The university student (Christian Oliver) whose disenchantment leads him to Dr. Vick's door may have no idea what's in store for him, but that's the only way any of this would work. There comes a point when the experiments start to become repetitive, with no increase in the stakes, and Subject Two starts to spin its wheels. But given its limited resources, it's an effective examination of the potential for death to be an impermanent state, and how the pendulum between life and death messes with the mind of a subject who's cognizant of what's happening to him. Derek Armstrong, Rovi
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