Dark City

Here’s another fairly short entry, as the movie was fairly simple and not particularly noteworthy or interesting, though to the extent it is, read further.

Here I’m paying homage to Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith, aka Rufus Sewell, by way of acknowledging this much earlier work of his: “Dark City”, from 1998.  He plays John Murdoch, who may or may not be a murderer, pursued by Police Inspector Frank Bumstead (William Hurt) in a mysterious city which never sees daylight.  Moreover there’s a beach resort, Shell Beach, which everyone seems to remember but can’t seem to recall any specific details about having been to.   Jennifer Connolly plays his wife Emma.  

It turns out there are mysterious strangers, The Strangers, who dominate the town with the assistance of a scientist, Dr. Shreber, played by Kiefer Sutherland.   Or rather, they try to, but Murdoch seems to be immune to their mind control powers and screws everything up.  Naturally he’s the key to unravelling everything.

Eventually there’s a showdown and everything falls apart.  It’s all very artsy and pretentious.   The most obvious comparison is “The Matrix”, but this has a more 40s film noir flavor to it.  My own inclination was:  “where is the damn sun?  Why is it never daylight?  And why doesn’t anyone notice that?”   Overall I’d say the best part of the film is the fact that it ends.