May 19, 2004
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
[3 - Enjoyed it]
It is regrettable when a "what is really going on" style mystery becomes predictable. Such is the case with The Thirteenth Floor (1999), a noir-style murder mystery told in and out of a virtual reality simulation so sophisticated that the characters in the virtual world do not realize they are figments in somebody else's story. Still some decent acting from Craig Bierko, Vincent D'Onofrio and Gretchen Mol along with a strong visual style lend the otherwise flat story enough of a spark to make the movie at least watch able.
While most people have compared The Thirteenth Floor to movies like Dark City (1998), The Matrix (1999), and the remarkably similar script for eXistenZ (1999), watching the movie I was reminded more of noir-fi classics like Blade Runner (1982) and Gattaca (1997). This is probably mostly due to the second reality taking place in an impressively richly constructed 1937 Los Angeles. Unfortunately not a hell of a lot happens in the course of the movie. Our hero is accused of a murder and jumps in and out of the virtual world he constructed to try and solve the mystery. Along the way enough hints are dropped to make the thin story easy to figure out. D'Onofrio is as always a pleasure to see act and Moll lends the movie a strong sense of authenticity with her classic beauty (which incidentally has given me new hope for the upcoming biopic The Ballad of Bettie Page (2004) where she is due to replace Liv Tyler in the title role).
