Man vs monkey

James Franco may not win an award for TV hosting any time soon, but he sure is no slouch at acting. In “127 Hours,” for instance, he was “interacting” with rocks for most of the movie’s running time, but that didn’t stop him from earning a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars early this year. In Rupert Wyatt’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” the actor figures in another thespic mano-a-mano—this time, with apes!

Cure

As scientist Will Rodman, Franco gets  some fierce competition from the performance-capture portrayal of Andy Serkis, who plays the young chimpanzee, Caesar, whom Will takes home and raises as a child after his botched attempt to develop a cure for nervous system-related illnesses.

Will’s motivation is understandable: His father, Charles (John Lithgow), is stricken with Alzheimer’s disease—and he’s “drifting away” faster than expected! But, hope springs eternal. While the deleterious effects of Will’s serum have yet to be documented in humans, its intelligence-enhancing boost on Caesar’s cognitive functions are nothing short of miraculous. Will it also work for Charles?

At age 5, the loving but impressionable chimp is already smarter than the humans who look down on him and treat him as a “pet.” But, when Caesar gets entangled in an incident involving Charles, he suddenly finds himself imprisoned at an animal facility for primates. Has Caesar’s “intelligence” prepared him to take their cruelty against his kind with a grain of salt?

Issues

Nature versus nurture isn’t the only issue that figures prominently as the movie’s exposition grippingly runs its course: Are we allowed to tamper with nature, even in the guise of scientific advancement? Are humans truly more superior than other creatures? As these issues come to the fore, they don’t feel heavy-handed, because they’re effectively woven into the relationships that hold the production’s disparate plotlines together.

Wyatt’s fast-paced, cautionary action-drama will hold your attention and draw empathy for its characters—until countless monkeys in various shapes and sizes inexplicably come from out of nowhere to help the narrative segue into its noisy, slam-bang finale.

Franco vividly conveys his character’s contrasting motivations—he is ambitious, but he also knows there’s more to life than financial success. His performance is complemented by Serkis’ riveting portrayal—he isn’t equipped to articulate Caesar’s emotions with words, but his eyes say it all! Creepy.