Strange Days [VHS]

In the top 15 of all time...

Ralph Fiennes excels against type as Lenny Nero, a decent man making an indecent living, selling recorded clips of other peoples' reality on the black market. Still in love with his ex , rock star Faith (Juliette Lewis), Nero is blind to the love closer to him in the shape of his best friend Angela Basset. All three are drawn into a tangled and dangerous mystery when one of Lenny's illegal clips reveals an incident so shocking that it's implications could rock the nation to its very core. All this on the eve of the biggest party the world has ever seen and the stage is set for an adrenalin rush of the highest caliber.

Whilst Strange Days' plot is a complex one, like Blade Runner before it, Bigelow's movie triumphs in its ability to create a world which is utterly believable. Familiar enough to be genuinely recognizable, this reality takes our moral decline to its extremes, so that there is a sense of true possibility about what we are watching. The device of experiencing other peoples' thoughts and feelings is far from new in science fiction, think of Brainstorm for example, but it has never been used to such thrilling and believable effect as here. Added to this, the characterization is far from your standard action film fare, with people we actually care about and want to survive. Their relationships are fueled with emotion, and so are we as our hopes for them reach fever pitch as they battle against those the revelatory tape threatens to expose.

If the film has a flaw, it's that it tries to be too many things. Love story, science fiction, action adventure, moral commentary, Strange Days is as ambitious as a mainstream Hollywood action movie gets. It has things to say, and it says them magnificently.

This is due in no small part to the often amazing work of Bigelow, proving here to be one of our finest action directors. From the opening one-take shot in which we see a high octane robbery and shootout all from the point of view of the robber (including his fall from a very tall building), Bigelow keeps us on a knife edge throughout whilst not allowing the action to get in the way of the characters. The film is visually one of the most stunning I have seen, with the Millennium celebrations brought amazingly to life in a street party of epic proportions, and a final struggle in the crowds against a corrupt policeforce which will leave you gasping and weeping at the same time.

For all its high-powered, loud and heart pounding drive to its conclusion, there is a tender heart at the center of Strange Days which offers hope and reconciliation, and that's what you leave the film remembering. For an action flick to even attempt what Strange Days attempts is brave. For it to have succeeded in so many ways is remarkable.