Instinct

Donald Sutherland in Instinct plays Dr Ben Hillard. He's the head psychiatrist at some teaching institution and is in charge of an earnest, "slightly pissed off" and ambitious star student called Dr Theo Calder played by Cuba (Show me the money!!) Gooding Jr.

In that first ten minutes or so, Dr Hillard nods approvingly as Dr Calder puts an unhappy self delusional patient through a reality check. He then assigns Calder, accompanied by alarmingly illogical reasoning, to interview a new patient (former shrink Dr Ethan Powell) who has been brought in from darkest Africa with what appear to be severe psychological and legal problems.

Powell (Anthony Hopkins) apparently lived with some gorillas for two years whilst incidentally murdering one of the human locals. But most importantly he won't utter a word. For Calder, Powell resents a fabulous career and publishing opportunity.

By now the credibility of Instinct had been well and truly blown, mostly by Donald Sutherland's character. By the time Dr Calder descends to the horrors of the prison in which Powell has been caged, with its scribed retinue of demented crazies and sadistic guards, it was obvious that most of the setup of Instinct was totally ill conceived and that in particular Dr Hillard should have not even existed.

In particular there was no reason really why Calder couldn't have been at least one of the residing prison psychiatrists which would have done away altogether with the overdressed and awkward Donald Sutherland performance. The world would have then been a better place for it.

So what was good about Instinct? Well, thank goodness the other main characters were as competent as they were. Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Maura Tierny did a good job of rescuing what could have easily been an utter mess.

Seeing Hopkins in jail instantly recalls Hannibal the Cannibal, this time with bad hair, or perhaps Sean Connery in The Rock before his makeover. But Hopkins never seems to make a mess of any part he's in, even one as trite as this one.

Cuba Gooding Jr. manages to portray a bright, young ambitious and energetic professional really well; he was probably playing himself.

Maura Tierney, the other woman in Forces Of Nature, is attractive and effective as the sad, beautiful, estranged daughter of the mad and bad Ethan Powell.

We've seen it all before. But dictability and a rampant disease of stock characters and tried before plot elements will only please the most undemanding of movie goers. Let's hope that there aren't too many of them.