Synopsis
A man struggles with memories of his past, including a wife he cannot remember, in a nightmarish world with no sun and run by beings with telekinetic powers who seek the souls of humans.
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Cast
- Rufus SewellJohn Murdoch
- William HurtInspector Frank Bumstead
- Kiefer SutherlandDr. Daniel P. Schreber
- Jennifer ConnellyEmma Murdoch
- Richard O'BrienMr. Hand
- Ian RichardsonMr. Book
- Bruce SpenceMr. Wall
- Colin FrielsDet. Eddie Walenski
- John BluthalKarl Harris
- Mitchell ButelOfficer Husselbeck
Recommendations
- 100
Washington Post
If you don't fall in love with it, you've probably never fallen in love with a movie, and never will. - 100
Chicago Sun-Times
A great visionary achievement, a film so original and exciting, it stirred my imagination like "Metropolis" and "2001: A Space Odyssey." - 90
Newsweek
Proyas floods the screen with cinematic and literary references ranging from Murnau and Lang to Kafka and Orwell, creating a unique yet utterly convincing world. - 75
Chicago Tribune
Proyas' movie lacks a truly rich or compelling story -- although the city secret is certainly a rich and compelling idea. All too often, Dark City seems a great production design in search of a movie, an ultimate modern film noir pastiche, in which the images are so strong they overpower the drama. [27 Feb 1998] - 75
USA Today
Fascinating, visionary filmmaking. With its amber-tinged palette and its distinctively dystopian view of life, it may be the most unique-looking film we've seen in ages...[but] defies logic and makes frightening and unexpected leaps. - 70
The New York Times
So relentlessly trippy in a fun-house sort of way that it could very easily inspire a daredevil cult of moviegoers who go back again and again to experience its mind-bending twists and turns. Although its story doesn't add up when you analyze it afterward, the movie does take you on a visually arresting ride that offers many unsettling surprises right up to a sentimental sunburst of an ending that has a paranoid undertone. - 63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
An almost really good movie...risks leaving the viewer feeling like one of the bewildered automatons that move through the plots. - 60
L.A. Weekly
[Proyas] hasn't yet learned how to enliven his characters as fully as his sets. Part of this is structural (somnolence is built into the script), but the greater fault lies with Proyas' direction of his performers, most of whom deliver their lines in a strangulated whisper.
