Congo

Yet another movie I watched far too many times in the '90s. Which is funny, because I did not enjoy the book when I read it in junior high during my Michael Crichton phase. Took too long to get to the stuff I wanted to read, which was about struggling against the killer apes. I only decided to watch this again because in my Adventures of Brisco County Jr. set, there's a note for one episode from Bruce Campbell about getting to work with his buddy from Congo, and I was like, "Bruce Campbell was in Congo?"

A communications company sent people into the Congo looking for blue diamonds, which could be used to focus or improve their telecommunications satellite. The team, including the company owner's son, lose contact, so Laura Linney, as a member of the company (and former employee of the friggin' CIA), is sent to find out what happened. Quietly, so she latches on to an expedition by a behavioral scientist (Dylan Walsh) to return his gorilla, Amy, to the jungle where she grew up. The expedition runs into all sorts of problems, including political upheaval, border patrols, nighttime hippo attacks (I had completely forgotten that scene), unstable volcanoes, and, eventually, killer apes.

A lot of focus in the movie goes to Amy, who was taught sign language and outfitted with a glove that translates those signs into speech. Everybody repeatedly makes fun of Peter for interacting with Amy like they're married. Probably says something about those people's marriages, since the interactions come off as much more of a parent with their child. Peter seems to feel like the best thing for Amy is to return her to the jungle, that being isolated from other gorillas isn't healthy for her, but he still has that watchful air of a parent worried about sending their child off into the unknown. He has to trust she can look after herself, or learn to fit in.

Linney's arc is, I'm not sure. She explains at one point she left the CIA because she was tired of working for horrible people. By the end of the movie, she seems to realize her boss is also a horrible person. The leader of the first team he sent in was his own son (played by Bruce Campbell, which is why I didn't remember him), who was her fiance at one point. Linney wanted assurances she was going to make sure Charles was OK, not to secure the diamonds and learns, nope, her boss is a heartless asshole. Or a big spoiled baby. Early on, he gets angry and smashes a monitor in their communications center, then tells her to put the fire out. Kind of said everything right there.

I'm just not sure where she ends up, though. She very effectively filed her resignation, so maybe standing up to her evil boss on the way out the door rather than just leaving is an improvement, but I don't know what comes next.

It's one of those movies with no real star, just a lot of characters actors. Lot of That Guys. Bruce Campbell, of course (and it's such a waste he's only in the movie for like 10 minutes), but Ernie Hudson's in here as their guide. Tim Curry plays a crazy Romanian hoping Amy will lead him to King Solomon's diamonds. Hudson's character actually led his last attempt, yet he somehow doesn't recognize him until they've been traveling for over a day. The idea you wouldn't recognize Tim Curry speaking with that accent when you literally carried him out of the jungle once seems farfetched. Joe Pantoliano and Delroy Lindo are both uncredited according to IMDb, which is bizarre since they both have multiple lines of dialogue.

It's kind of nice actually, because no one gets to suck up all the oxygen. In Delroy Lindo's one scene, he's the one in control. The focus is on him, not the star. Everything moves off his demands. Sometimes Walsh and Amy are the focus. Sometimes it's Linney and her grey morality. Sometimes it's Curry hamming it up. Hudson is the sort of calm, faintly amused center of it. He bounces off all of them. Punctures Curry's nonsense, makes Walsh see sense, has enough experience doing unpleasant things he can coax some real answers out of Linney.

You never feel like there's only one character you're meant to care about, although I probably worried most about Walsh and Amy. Walsh is a generally decent guy in wildly over his head. He just wanted to take Amy home, and everyone else has used him for their own selfish purposes. Granted he would never have made it without them, but there's a lot of shit going down he didn't ask for.