Great Instinct for a movie!

In celebration of the year 2000, my family and I watched videos the past few nights and Instinct with Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding, Jr. was one of them. It was an outstanding film and not what I expected. I thought, perhaps, it would be more focused on an obsession with animals such as the movie Gorillas In the Mist. Although I did enjoy and appreciate the latter, this film, Instinct, was presented so much more effectively without losing the respect, dignity, and curiosity portrayed in Gorillas.

As always, Anthony Hopkins gave a stellar performance and it's easy to see why he is so highly revered. I was actually touched by his performance and profoundly appreciated his overall perspective on not just the animals but human beings as well. It seemed to be very well-balanced in both respects offering how we love, protect, and care for our families. His intellectual and creative portrayal of his character was nothing less, as usual, than an Oscar-winning performance.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. also did very well and just seems to get better with each movie that he's in. His character complemented Anthony Hopkins' character and both made a beneficial statement for those incarcerated and/or psychologically-challenged. It wasn't the usual prison movie and I found myself sympathetic to the prisoners.

The story moved swiftly enough to not be boring and kept us in suspense as we tried to figure out where Dr. Powell [Hopkins] was going to take us. Or, where Theo [Gooding] was going to end up and would he truly learn something from this situation.

This movie gets major thumbs up from our family and is enjoyable as well as causes one to really think about who the real animals are out there and is it necessary to destroy one another over power, control, and abuse. We all know the answer to that and I found myself constantly paralleling this movie with the climb up the corporate ladder given the aggressiveness to succeed, achieve and be above others. [simply one example, there are many others]

The things that truly matter in life should be the basic decency to our fellow man and focused on the destiny of our families. We should also appreciate the freedom that we enjoy and, as a society, think about rehabilitating ourselves as well as the incarcerated or the criminally-challenged or others in need. Yes, this movie affected me in a positive way because it made me realize that we all need to work on being more giving and taking notice of how we contribute to this world.