Subject: REVIEW: THE FIFTH ELEMENT (1997)

From: [email-masked] (Michael Dequina)
Date: 6 May 1997 00:54:35 GMT

THE FIFTH ELEMENT
                       A film review by Michael Dequina
                        Copyright 1997 Michael Dequina

The Fifth Element (PG-13) *** (out of ****)
        The cryptic teaser trailer has been unspooling in moviehouses for
quite sometime now: "IT MU5T BE FOUND."  So what, exactly, is The Fifth
Element?  After seeing Luc Besson's ambitious, much-shrouded-in-secrecy
science fiction fantasy, I could not help but be let down by the actual
answer, which is not nearly as exciting nor clever as one would think.  But
what is far from a letdown is the film as a whole, a wildly imaginative
feast for the senses that does what all the best science fiction films
do--create a universe unlike any other presented on the silver screen.
        The biggest irony of The Fifth Element is that the one thing that
has been kept under such tight wraps--the actual storyline--is the most
conventional, dismayingly so, element (pun intended) of the film.  Speaking
in the vaguest possible terms, the basics of the plot are as follows: in the
year 2259, a great force of evil threatens to consume the earth, and only
the four elements--earth, wind, fire, and water--united with a fifth element
can stop it.  Figuring into all of this are New York cabbie Korben Dallas
(Bruce Willis); a shady, Southern-drawling entrepreneur by the name of Zorg
(the hilariously hammy Gary Oldman, picking up where he left off in Besson's
The Professional); a priest (Ian Holm); and a mysterious creature named
Leeloo (Milla Jovovich).  All of the pieces come together in a tidy and
somewhat underwhelming--and unsurprising--fashion, but there is no denying
that this basic story holds some intrinsic interest.
        What remains interesting and exciting, however, after brief glimpses
is the fascinating world Besson has created with production designer Dan
Weil, director of photography Thierry Arbogast, visual effects supervisor
Mark Stetson, and the crew at Digital Domain.  The look is absolutely
mesmerizing right from the opening moments to the last.  The frenzied
cityscape of New York, with its vibrant day-glo colors, tall buildings
penetrating high into the clouds, and the swarm of cars, cabs, and other
vehicles flying through labyrinthian skyways, is absolutely breathtaking to
behold, especially in a wild car chase sequence early on in the film.  But
it would not have been a completely captivating vision if the people
inhabiting the settings weren't equally as interesting, and are they ever.
In addition to the exotic menagerie of alien creatures that populate this
world, from bulky robots to dog-like Mangalores, the humans are outfitted in
costumes by eccentric designer Jean-Paul Gaulthier, best known for creating
Madonna's pointy bustier get-up in her Blonde Ambition tour.  Gaulthier's
outlandish creations, such as a number worn by Leeloo made entirely out of
white straps, feel more at home in Besson's futuristic vision than on any
fashion runway in the world; they add to the sense of otherworldliness about
the film.
        While Besson's bold vision is the biggest virtue of the film, it
also could be its biggest obstacle to reaching a mass audience.  For all its
imagination, certain things about the film may be a bit too quirky and
bizarre.  I really do not know what middle America will make of the most
outrageous character of the film, Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker), a flamboyant
disc jockey who makes Dennis Rodman look conservative--he makes a raucous
entrance dressed in an animal print dress, sporting a blonde hairdo in the
shape of a hair dryer, speaking in high pitches at rapid fire speed.   At
first this character's hyper energy is funny, but the act wears out its
welcome very quickly.  Not irritating, but just as strange, is a musical
number by blue-skinned alien chanteuse Diva (Maiwenn LeBesco), who
sings--and dances--an aria that is an unlikely blend of classical opera and
techno.  The tune, as with the entirety of longtime Besson collaborator Eric
Serra's innovative score, is haunting, but it is also completely jarring.
Then there are the campy touches of humor Besson and co-scripter Robert Mark
Kamen sprinkle throughout, which too often are silly and forced; a comic
sexual encounter between Ruby Rhod and a flight attendant is highly
distracting and not very funny, to boot.
        The story's weakness shines through in the climax and conclusion of
The Fifth Element.  While still visually and aurally spectacular, the events
detailed are not as exciting nor powerful as they should be.  The big,
serious dramatic climax was met with more than a few snickers, and it
ambitiously strives for a profundity which the film had not even begun to
work toward.  As such, at the end there is a sense that there was something
bigger at work here, that there was still more left to be said about this
story and these characters.  This suspicion was confirmed by Besson himself,
who told me in the lobby following the screening (imagine that, the
filmmaker watching the film with the "enemy"--the critics) that what had
made it to the screen was really just the first half of the lengthy original
Fifth Element screenplay and that the second half--now titled Mr. Shadow--is
still waiting to be made.
        Still, despite the story problems, The Fifth Element is an artistic
triumph for Luc Besson; rarely does a filmmaker's original vision come to
the screen in all its audacious, undiluted glory.  It is a fascinating
example of how of one artist's fervid imagination can transport an audience
into an intoxicating fantasy world generally seen only in dreams.

Michael Dequina
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