THE NET

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sexual implications, violence, language

Rated:

How much of your time is tied up with the internet? Do you realize every aspect of your life can be spied on through a simple mainframe access? Few people bother to put their knowledge of you together, but the ones who do have infinite power. Your entire life is on a computer system somewhere -- your social security number, your birth date and hospital records, your insurance forms, your entire identity. What would happen if your life was erased, changed with a mere stroke of a computer key? This is the premise of The Net, a complex psychological thriller with a chillingly realistic setting.

Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a computer analyst for Cathedral Software, a multi-billion dollar computer company at the top of a swiftly expanding industry. A highly-paid employee specializing in de-bugging computer viruses, Angela has the liberty of working from home. In the six years she's worked for Cathedral she's never so much as set foot inside headquarters. She hasn't met any of her coworkers, and her "friends" consist of people who have never seen her face, only heard her voice over the telephone or viewed her icon in a chat room. Angela's entire world is computers; with their help, she need never leave the house or pick up the phone even to order pizza. Without any family to speak of (her mother is in a nursing home due to her Alzheimer's), Angela finds lonely satisfaction in constant work and evening chats.

Then a whopper of a disk arrives in her mailbox. "Mozart's Ghost" looks just like a regular band web page... except for the little PI symbol in the lower right hand corner. When clicked it sends the surfer to a variety of different password-protected sites. Her friend Dale has stumbled onto something he shouldn't have, and wants her help in de-bugging this mysterious system. Agreeing to meet in person to explore the program together, Angela learns the following morning that Dale's plane got lost midway over L.A. and crashed into a water tower. Encouraged by her superior not to put off her vacation plans, Angela leaves for Mexico amidst airport chaos and finds time to relax on the beach. Once there she meets the handsome, debonair Jack Devlin (Jeremy Northam), a fellow computer fanatic who shares her love for onion cocktails.

Little does Angela know every wall she has put up to protect herself from the outside world will be torn down by a dangerous gang of cyber-terrorists known as Praetorians desperate to keep her quiet. Her wallet. Her credit cards. Her identity... wiped away with a single keystroke. Angela is about to step into the most dangerous experience of her life. Her entire world is on a computer somewhere... just waiting to be hacked. A suspenseful thriller Hitchcock himself would be proud of, The Net is a slowly unraveling mystery of sinister proportions. There are several nods to the master of suspense himself; at one point Devlin ties a handkerchief around Angela's waist, which is a scene straight out of Notorious. Fans of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train will also note the importance of a carousel in a pivotal action sequence. The small, seemingly insignificant clues add up to a surprising climax. Some of the software is dated by today's standards, and there's a certain limit of believability involved when it comes to accepting a simple floppy could hold megabits of information. But if one can overlook this minor flaw, The Net is incredibly realistic.

Part of the film's natural charm comes from the pairing of Jeremy Northam (deviating from his usual costume fare) and America's Sweetheart Sandra Bullock. Northam is superb in his role as Jack Devlin... at first a suave if slightly suspicious stranger on the beach, later as a ruthless killer whose deeds are more often spoken of than actually seen. He has the ruthless sex appeal needed for the role; viewers find themselves both attracted to and repulsed by him. Bullock's portrayal of an insecure young woman with problems is a surprisingly good one, particularly when she begins to take matters into her own hands. The fact that this actress can keep the audience interested when so much time is devoted to computer screens, fast typing, and internet-relayed information only proves her charisma and likeability on screen.

Not unlike other thrillers in this genre, The Net has a few bugs. Premarital sex is implied, particularly difficult to believe when one takes into account Angela's shy nature. She goes with the "out of control" events of their evening together and kisses him, which leads to a following shot of them curled together up beneath a blanket. This twist makes the villain all the more loathsome due to the fact you can foresee his true nature. As they lay next to one another in the back of Devlin's boat, Angela confesses the problems which have shaped her life for so long. A look of empathy comes over his face, followed by obvious unease. One has to wonder what he might have done had not Angela confronted him with the gun found in his inside jacket pocket.

In several action-packed sequences Angela is pursued by psychopath terrorists. We witness a small plane colliding with a water tower and going up in a fireball. Angela attacks her assailant with a cigarette (burning his face) and then a champagne bottle (knocking him unconscious) before escaping into a raft. There are several car crashes (one intentional) and exchanges of gunplay; one person is shot and killed. Another falls from a catwalk after being slammed with a fire extinguisher; we see the body hit a platform below and hear a sickening thud. We also hear of violent actions. The opening scene portrays a man placing a gun into his mouth; we hear the resulting gunshot as the camera pans away. The media reports on various murders, including a "gunshot to the head." One f-word (used sexually), four abuses each of Christ's name and GD, and numerous exclamations of sh*t pepper the dialogue, along with other profanity. A character mentions an adulterous relationship in which she didn't know the other party was married. Devlin teases Angela about her "last" sexual affair and she confesses to a relationship with her therapist.

To an old thriller buff like me, The Net was right up my alley with enough psychological suspense to make the two hours spent foraging the dangers of cyberspace worthwhile.