Very much the same storyline as Lauren Oliver's Delirium trilogy. In the film (released in 2002, well before the book was written) we have a society that has decided that emotion is the root of all evil. As a result, the society has decided to drug all members into a state of senselessness. A special police force is created, called the Clerics, and charged with hunting down and executing all "sense offenders". This includes destroying all nostalgia, art, music, etc. Christian Bale plays the chief cleric and of course, must deal with his own developing emotions. This was an adequate effort, but not extraordinary. For example I wonder, if everyone was really drugged to remove all emotion, why would anyone ever smile or smirk. You either get automatons or you don't. While Bale is generally very good, he didn't have much to work with here. I would have loved to see a bigger role for his kids and the development of those relationships into a bigger portion of the plot. In terms of action, I did appreciate the hand-to-hand combat with pistols. A fine mixture of martial arts with the added necessity of keeping your opponent from ever getting any sort of inside position to allow firing of their weapon. That particular scene was well done. Apparently this never went to wide release in the theaters, so most of us missed it 10 years ago. Thanks Netflix...
3 stars (out of 5)
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