June 6, 1999
Web posted at: 4:36 p.m. EDT (2036 GMT)

By Reviewer Paul Clinton

(CNN) -- Anthony Hopkins, an Academy Award-winning actor and one of the two stars of the new film "Instinct," is bar none one of the greatest actors of our time. His intelligence, range and naturalistic style of acting are comparable only to Spencer Tracy, a man who was one of the greatest actors of all time.

Unfortunately, the main problem facing a great actor is finding great material worthy of his talents. Hopkins' appearance in this film is the greatest waste of a valuable natural resource since the oil spill from the Exxon Valdez.

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Movie reviews

In "Instinct," Hopkins plays a brilliant professor turned criminal, Ethan Powell. Accused of a number of brutal murders, he's being held at a maximum security prison for the criminally insane.

Cuba Gooding, Jr., also an Academy Award winner (for "Jerry Maguire" in 1996), is an ambitious psychiatric resident, Theo Caulder, who has his own agenda. He wants to advance his career by writing a book about Powell. Of course, Powell has his own agenda, and it doesn't include making Caulder famous. So Powell proceeds to play major head games with the rookie.

Combine their crossed plots, and what do you get? A cheap, hokey film which cashes in on images of 1991's "Silence of the Lambs" with a little "Gorillas in the Mist" thrown in for good measure. Ultimately it's a much different story then either of those films, but it's still blatantly derivative.

The plot, in a nutshell -- which is where it belongs -- features Powell as a loner estranged from his family. He's wary of people in particular and society in general. Naturally he becomes an anthropologist and primatologist who lives for two years with gorillas (the mist is apparently optional) in the jungles of Rwanda.

He is actually accepted into a family of gorillas and proceeds to eat, sleep and hunt with his hairy friends. In other words, he has a relationship with the gorillas that would have made the late gorilla expert Dian Fossey green with envy. Then he's captured and jailed after the murders of a number of park rangers in Rwanda who attacked his animal "family."

Enter Theo. He's been asked by his professional mentor, Ben Hillard (Donald Sutherland), to evaluate Powell's case. But he proceeds to do more than just evaluate, becoming deeply involved in digging into Powell's twisted psyche. (His mind turns out not to be that twisted in the end; He just likes primates better then he likes people. Many perfectly sane humans would agree with his outlook.)

Hopkins has been very public about his current dissatisfaction with his career and the acting profession in general. He has been quoted as saying that "acting is bad for the mental health." "Instinct" could be a big reason for his disillusionment.

Characters act in one way one moment, and then turn on a dime when this flimsy plot requires what could laughingly be called "motivation" in the next moment. At first, the guards at the mental institute are totally in charge and hassle Theo constantly. Then suddenly, for no reason whatsoever, Theo starts issuing orders and they start following them without question.

This may move the plot along, but it kills what tiny itty bit of believability this film had.

Director Jon Turteltaub and screenwriter Gerald DiPego obviously took the money and ran on this one. The words silly, awkward, ludicrous and stupid all immediately come to mind.

For those who loved Hopkins in his Oscar-winning "Silence of the Lambs" role, it might be a good choice to bag seeing this film and wait for the sequel, which is sure to be coming soon. Author Thomas Harris' third book about "Hannibal the Cannibal" Lecter is available in bookstores this month and the movie rights have already been bought for $10 million. Yes, both Jodie Foster and Hopkins are in discussions to repeat their roles.

"Instinct" opens nationwide on Friday, June 4 and is rated R for some intense violent behavior. 123 minutes.