The Experiment (2010)
The Experiment is frustrating. It isn't good but makes you think it is by manipulating your emotions and pressing your buttons. You may disagree so hear me out before you pass judgment.
This loose remake of Das Experiment. Is about a group of ordinary men selected for a psychological experiment inside a "prison". They will be handsomely paid to follow their assigned roles - either prisoner or guard - and the rules associated with these roles. Once inside, the situation quickly escalates to nightmarish conditions.
Historically, studies like the Milgram experiment and the Stanford Prison experiment confirm what transpires here as mostly realistic. My criticisms come from the dumbed-down story filled with cartoonish characters and ridiculous developments. The "normal men" selected for the experiment are stereotypes who make the movie extremely predictable. Travis, a.k.a. Prisoner 77 (Adrien Brody) is a subscriber to non-violence, believes in solving his problems through rational thinking but has a rebellious, anti-authoritative heart. What do you think will happen to his ideals by the end? It's obvious and so is everything else. Itâs not enough for Michael (Forest Whitaker) to be mild-mannered; he lives with his overbearing mother and canât get a date. Other broadly painted characters include Prisoner 51 (Ethan Cohn as Benjy) who can't just be socially awkward, must also be a wannabe artist who dreams of writing a graphic novel (and refuses to acknowledge the word comic book as a substitute), has poor social skills, wears thick-rimmed glasses and clearly isn't all there mentally. Itâs impossible not to get riled up as things get out-of-control but your anger never comes from legitimate, surprising character development or any genuine insight into the human psyche.
The further into the movie we get, the more outlandish it becomes. It's like there's a scene missing where the audience learns the experiment's true objective isn't examining prisoner-guard power struggles. Such a facade would've explained why several men who should've been disqualified from the experiment were selected. Then, we get to the ending, which leaves dozens of questions up in the air with no answers to be found. What are we supposed to take away from this? That under biased conditions, things would play out exactly the way we'd expect them to?
The titular experiment of this film has less intellectual value than the ones conducted in the Saw franchise. You think Iâm exaggerating. Jigsaw was a serial killer but he wanted to find out how much people wanted to survive and he did whenever some poor chump decided to lob off his own arm. The only way this movie would make any sense is if the creepy scientist guy at the beginning was actually a supervillain who wanted to record these events for spank material. Reading about the actual experiments on Wikipedia or watching Lord of the Flies (the original black-and-white one) is a far more insightful and satisfying than watching The Experiment. (On DVD, December 18, 2014)
