Instinct

Director: Jon Turteltaub

Stars: Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr, Anthony Hopkins, Maura Tierney

Year: 1999 Running Time: 123 mins Rating:

Renowned anthropologist Dr Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins) is held in a Florida mental institution after killing two gorilla poachers in Rwanda. Psychologist Dr Theo Calder (Cuba Gooding Jr) probes the mind of the man who has spent years in the jungle with primates...with startling results. More a whydunnit than a whodunnit, this is refreshingly intelligent moviemaking.

Review

In this psychological thriller, Anthony Hopkins stars as a famous anthropologist who hasn't spoken since being locked up for the killings of three men in the African jungle.

Psychiatrist Cuba Gooding Jr is assigned to draw Hopkins from his shell of silence and find out why, after two years studying apes, he turned to murder.

Slow at times, and Gooding's concern for prison welfare is distracting, but Hopkins is good and the jungle special effects are impressive.