Great Film overall

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

INSTINCT was an obvious bit of attempted Oscar bait from director Jon Turteltaub back in 1999. Turteltaub is the man responsible for such generic adventure fare as the NATIONAL TREASURE movies and generic family fare as THE KID. So what better man to direct a generic wannabe award winner? INSTINCT has all of the ingredients to be a critical favorite but it's missing that one crucial element: being a good movie. I'm not saying it's a bad movie because it's actually not. It's just forgettable. You probably won't feel let down after spending two hours watching this movie, but it won't take much longer to forget that it existed. INSTINCT wants to be tense. It wants to be inspirational. It wants to tug at the heartstrings. But it doesn't, because it's so transparent in its intentions. Or at least, I thought so. The movie follows an aspiring psychologist named Theo Caulder, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. He's assigned to a unique case by his mentor (Donald Sutherland) and sees an opportunity to jump-start his career with a bestseller. Accomplished anthropologist Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins) has been transferred to a prison in the US from Rwanda, where he was doing time for murdering men after disappearing into the jungles for nearly two years. Upon Powell's return to civilization, he is a changed man. Feral and refusing to speak, Caulder dedicates his time to Powell, determined to find out what happened in those jungles, why he disappeared, and what drove him to murder.What bothered me about this movie was that it couldn't decide what it wanted to focus on. There are two main through-lines in this movie, running at the same time. There's, of course, the main storyline with Caulder and Powell and the story of their interactions, and then there's an entirely different unrelated subplot of how the prison that Powell is transferred to is a miserable place where the guards abuse the mentally handicapped and the prison shrink does nothing for his patients. In my opinion, these are two different movies and conflict with each other. Once you finally get involved in the Powell/Caulder interviews, it rips you away from that to show how Caulder is inspired to reform the prison's system for handling its mental patients. And it bounces back and forth so often that I just didn't care as much as I should for either storyline. Subplots are OK, but they don't generally get equal screen time with the main story because it detracts from it. Besides, we've already got movies that handle uncaring mental health care in bigger and better ways (e.g. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST). I watched this movie because I wanted to see Hopkins and Gooding Jr. to engage in a mental game of cat and mouse. I wanted a good, tense psychological drama and I got it…in bits and pieces. Each story was entertaining enough but the entire movie ends up leaving you (well, I suppose it left me anyway) unfulfilled.Another issue I had with the movie is that it's populated with characters we've already seen before. No one in the movie feels like an original creation. The obvious example is Anthony Hopkins as Ethan Powell. In this movie, he's just a toned down version of his more famous (and more interesting) Hannibal Lecter. He was probably the worst choice for the role because of the obvious parallels, unless the filmmakers were counting on people to make that connection and hoped it would add to it. Cuba Gooding Jr. is every movie psychologist you've ever seen rolled up into one man as Caulder. He does well enough, as this was back before he thought SNOW DOGS was a smart career move. But, come on…we've seen this shtick before and he isn't bringing anything new to it. His optimism is meant to be inspirational...he IS going to reach this troubled man! He IS going to make this horrible prison a better place for it's inhabitants! Blah. The rest of the cast fails to make any sort of impressions as shallow caricatures. There's the disillusioned prison psychiatrist who's given up hope…the evil guard who finds entertainment in turning the strongest of the patients against the weak. There's Powell's daughter, long since given up on her absent father. It's just all so…been there, done that. If they'd focused on one story (the Powell/Caulder one, naturally) and fleshed out their characters into real people, this movie might've been what it was blatantly aspiring to be. Instead, it's good enough for a quiet evening but don't go in expecting the inspiring tale they're trying to sell.

A lot of reviewers have made the pat/rushed judgment that this film is an amalgamation of "Gorillas in the Mist" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." They miss the point. This is not an environmental activist story, and although it does touch on the theme of societal control, its focus is much more on the individual's perception of self within the social construct. That said, it is imperfect and suffers somewhat from a handful of melodramatic scenes (mostly with Gooding front-and center). But the intent of the film--as with the novel from which it is taken--is to instill questions within the viewer regarding the illusions we in our affluent, materialistic Western society hold regarding ourselves and our collective and individual senses of freedom, individualism, and control. As such, certain moments that some viewers proclaim improbable--such as Hopkins' exit scene--are intended to be allegorical more than realistic. This requires the viewer to rise above literalism, which many American viewers often find difficult to do, given American cinema's tendency to shy away from allegory and stick with more profit-producing formulae.

(Credit IMDb) Nearly two years after having gone amiss in Africa, renowned anthropologist Dr. Ethan Powell is caught committing a crime and subsequently imprisoned in a Florida mental institution, where aspiring psychiatrist Dr. Theo Calder takes over his important case. Dr. Powell, who has been with a group of gorillas during all that time, is not talking at all and seems to be living in a dream world. Very slowly, Dr. Calder manages to reach Ethan Powell and starts finding out why Ethan killed two of the poachers. Yet Theo's case is not just about why the murders have happened, but also about how Dr. Powell became the being he is in the first place. With Ethan's silence broken, Theo is introduced into a world beyond common human comprehension: The true nature of being. He learns that mankind's control of everything is a mere illusion and that the true values of existence can't be found so easily. Ethan changes Theo's view of things forever.Instinct is a powerful film, which succeeds more often then not. I've seen critics bash this film, and IMDb reviewers themselves, and for what? It's got a strong story, a great background story regarding Hopkins, and whenever those two interacted I was on the edge of my seat. I was also really touched by some of the flashback scenes with Hopkins and the Gorilla's, it was very well done. What starts off as a power struggle between Cuba and Hopkins turns into a unique and beautiful friendship, and I loved the way it went down. This is one of Cuba's most underrated movies, and I don't get the disdain for it.Performances. Anthony Hopkins is excellent here, as usual. His intensity knows no bounds, and I always felt alert and glued to my seat whenever his presence was on my T.V screen. His chemistry with Cuba was great as well. Cuba Gooding is very effective here, giving one of his finest performances in his hey-day of success. I've always been a big fan of his, and wish his work was fine these days such as this one. Donald Sutherland is wasted in a bit role here, he was OK. Maura Tierney is good in her limited screen time.Bottom line. I don't get why people dislike this movie, it's got everything I want in a Dramatization. Hopefully you'll be like me, and see this movie for what I feel it is, a really good film. Very much recommended.8/10

I have been watching movies ever since I was a child and given this fact, I am so picky about movies and not like many whose experiences don't pass ten movies and dare to watch a silly movie and say it is the best. Instinct is just one of the very very few mesmerizing movies. It really got me sitting breathless waiting for the lessons coming out from Hopkin's mouth and played on Gooding Jr's eyes just wonderfully. I mean those who know Cuba Gooding Jr's ability of getting you right where the role should (no body forgets his brilliance in Men of Honor). I guess "Instinct" giving you the chance to watch two gigantic actors (Hopkins and Gooding Jr.) and the lines in the movies are just as important.I wasn't exaggerating at all but a story that is about a professor who was willing to forget about his only daughter, forsake every thing that has to do with life's most joyous materialistic things and no ambition can drag him down anymore! Such personality must make you wonder how and why a man can leave all that! The answer is simply that nothing really exists or matters as long as humanity which was supposed to be out of the jungle and in the civilized world, was actually not there but among a bunch of gorillas!!!! Instinct is one of the slow paced movies but this is necessary when the movie has a moral. I find it strange that some people don't really find the intensity in slow paced movies such as Instinct, Deer Hunter, The Big Kahuna,etc...Though John Turteltaub doesn't have a record of great movies but his directing in this movie is just brilliant and those who are into philosophical and psychological scenes, will know what I am talking about when they get to see the movie. The duct tape scene is probably the master scene, however, the one at the end when Hopkins is facing the window making you wonder what's in his head is also a scene of no less importance, it shows great directing paying attention to many details like the light outside the window, Hopkins colleagues, the way Hopkins is standing. I guess that was just genius. I definitely give Instinct 10 out of 10.